"Purists"

ukecantdothat

ukecantdothat

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My band, 3hrTour, features my uke with a steel drummer. We play a mish-mash of calypso, reggae, soca, latin, etc. - general island music. We just played a gig where an ukulele "purist" complained that steel drum is Caribbean and uke is Hawaiian, and therefore the two instruments are "confused" and don't really belong together. I told the dude to "lighten up" and he must have thought I said, "Light one up," because he said, "I don't think that will help..."

Whoa...
 
If it sounds good, play it. Some of the most amazing music of the past 100 years has been from taking instruments out of their traditional context and placing it in another context. So...were it me, I'd tell the "purist" to put more energy into desiring great music, instead of getting stuck in a strugle over what should or should not be.
 
The pan player actually said words to that effect. Then we went into our version of Eleanor Rigby just to further confuse the guy!
 
id tell the guy if he doesnt like it then stop listening! id pay more attention to the people who enjoy my music for what it is
 
That's completely ridiculous, I think your band sounds rad. I play uke in a band and I wish we had steel drums! Light one up yourself and keep rocking on.. and don't listen to people like that.
 
Better not tell him the banjo has African origins, and by his logic, shouldn't be used for anything other than slave spirituals.
 
I kind of took it as a compliment. Most people wouldn't have made the musical distinction. In fact it never even occurred to me! I just say, "Oh... Harry Belafonte and then into Bruddah Iz? Great! And a one and a two..."
 
Even if those two instruments, "are not supposed to be together" which is false btw, who cares. I think that is the beauty of music. Mixing different sounds and styles and still being able to create beauty. He obviously does not know the true meaning of music.
 
Or maybe he does know the "true" meaning of music, and I'm the dope! But I've been breaking the "rules" of music my whole career. When I was a kid, a piano teacher literally threw a book at me because I wanted to play Beethoven my way, not his, and that he couldn't possibly know how to play it "properly" because Beethoven was dead. That's when the book whapped me upside the head. He sure showed me! That was my last piano lesson. The next week I got a Les Paul copy and never looked back...
 
ukecantdothat said:
My band, 3hrTour, features my uke with a steel drummer. We play a mish-mash of calypso, reggae, soca, latin, etc. - general island music. We just played a gig where an ukulele "purist" complained that steel drum is Caribbean and uke is Hawaiian, and therefore the two instruments are "confused" and don't really belong together. I told the dude to "lighten up" and he must have thought I said, "Light one up," because he said, "I don't think that will help..."

Whoa...
Click to expand...

I guess this guy has never heard of "Jawaiian" music which is Hawaiian reggae.
I personally don't listen to it (old fut me) but the local youth love it.
Hawaiian music existed for over a millennium without the 'ukulele. The 'Ukulele didn't make Hawaiian music any less Hawaiian.
 
Last edited:
Mix it up! :rock: :music:
 
what ethnicity was the guy...what instrument did he play?

Tell him that real purists only play instruments of their own nationality...it'll confuse the instrument. Then call him a poser.

you cant play ukulele unless you're Hawaiian...wait, or is it Portuguese? dang it, now I'm confused
 
ukecantdothat said:
When I was a kid, a piano teacher literally threw a book at me because I wanted to play Beethoven my way, not his, and that he couldn't possibly know how to play it "properly" because Beethoven was dead.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear you had such a bad piano teacher. My son's teacher is giving him not only Bela Bartok but blues and ragtime. As far as I can tell he likes all of it...
 
I'd have reminded him that today's radicals are tomorrow's conservatives.

--Mark
 
cornfedgroove said:
what ethnicity was the guy...what instrument did he play?

Tell him that real purists only play instruments of their own nationality...it'll confuse the instrument. Then call him a poser.

you cant play ukulele unless you're Hawaiian...wait, or is it Portuguese? dang it, now I'm confused
Click to expand...

Yes, I believe he was from Poserstan, and to be honest, he wasn't all that bent outta shape about it, he just thought we'd like to know for our own edification. We got a kick out of the comment. Later on, a woman from Trinidad told us we reminded her of home where certain traditions are celebrated with a uke/pan combo, which made us feel legal again. (Although she said they call the uke a "cuatro," which I later researched and found out is closer to the lute family. Close enough for me!)
 
So are there any links to this uke/steel drum combo I can check out?
 
If the guy is really a purist, he should ban ukuleles from Hawaiian music. Real traditional Hawaiian music was chanting accompanied only by percussion. Ukes are a modern invention...relatively speaking...brought to the island by colonizers and their lackeys.
 
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