UKULELE
History
The Ukulele is commonly associated with music from Hawaii where the name roughly translates as "jumping flea,"[4] perhaps because of the movement of the player's fingers. Legend attributes it to the nickname of the Englishman Edward William Purvis, one of King Kalākaua's officers, because of his small size, fidgety manner, and playing expertise. According to Queen Liliʻuokalani, the last Hawaiian monarch, the name means “the gift that came here,” from the Hawaiian words uku (gift or reward) and lele (to come).
Developed in the 1880s, the ukulele is based on several small guitar-like instruments of Portuguese origin, the machete,[5] the Cavaquinho and the Rajao, introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants from Madeira and Cape Verde.[6] Three immigrants in particular, Madeiran cabinet makers Manuel Nunes, José do Espírito Santo, and Augusto Dias, are generally credited as the first ukulele makers.[7] Two weeks after they disembarked from theSS Ravenscrag in late August 1879, the Hawaiian Gazette reported that "Madeira Islanders recently arrived here, have been delighting the people with nightly street concerts."[8]
One of the most important factors in establishing the ukulele in Hawaiian music and culture was the ardent support and promotion of the instrument by KingKalākaua. A patron of the arts, he incorporated it into performances at royal gatherings.[9]
The ukulele was popularized for a stateside audience during the Panama Pacific International Exposition, held from spring to fall of 1915 in San Francisco.[15] The Hawaiian Pavilion featured a guitar and ukulele ensemble, George E. K. Awai and his Royal Hawaiian Quartet,[16] along with ukulele maker and player Jonah Kumalae.[17]The popularity of the ensemble with visitors launched a fad for Hawaiian-themed songs among Tin Pan Alleysongwriters.[18] The ensemble also introduced both the lap steel guitar and the ukulele into U.S. mainland popular music,[19] where it was taken up by vaudeville performers such as Roy Smeck and Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards. On April 15, 1923 at the Rivoli Theater in New York City, Smeck appeared, playing the ukulele, in Stringed Harmony, a short film made in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process. On August 6, 1926, Smeck appeared playing the ukulele in a short film His Pastimes, made in the Vitaphone sound-on-disc process, shown with the feature film Don Juan starring John Barrymore.[20] The ukulele soon became an icon of the Jazz Age.[21]Highly portable and relatively inexpensive, it also proved popular with amateur players throughout the 1920s, as is evidenced by the introduction of uke chord tablature into the published sheet music for popular songs of the time,[21] a role that would eventually be supplanted by the guitar in the early years of rock and roll.[22] A number of mainland-based instrument manufacturers, among them Regal, Harmony, and Martin, added ukulele,banjolele, and tiple lines to their production to take advantage of the demand.
The ukulele also made inroads into early country music or old-time music.[23] It was played by Jimmie Rodgersand Ernest V. Stoneman, as well as by early string bands, including Cowan Powers and his Family Band, Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, Walter Smith and Friends, The Blankenship Family, The Hillbillies, and The Hilltop Singers.[23]
Reference: Ukulele Wiki