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Uke Fluke. What started as a flukey discovery at Pasadena, Calif., flea market 14 years ago has grown into a cult-like revival of that little four-stringed instrument most associated with Arthur Godfrey and Tiny Tim -- the ukulele, reports Lisa Napoli in The New York Times. It was a Martin tenor uke, priced at $250 that caught Jim Beloff's eye -- "and ... changed his life." There was just "something about the quaint and misunderstood ... instrument that inspired Jim and his wife, Liz ... to hunt for more things ukulele-like." They didn't find much other than a few "dusty old music books." So, he and Liz decided to design a songbook of their own: "I had this dream to put out one book filled with my favorite arrangements, and I figured there might be 10 people or a hundred who'd be interested, and that was it."
Jim, who used to work in sales for Billboard magazine, was quite wrong about that. Not only did he and Liz (a graphic artist) find a publisher, Hal Leonard, for the songbook, "Jumpin' Jim's Ukulele Favorites," but it was so successful that it led to a series of no fewer than 15 books that have sold a total of "more than 200,000 copies." Apparently a lot of other people recognized the uke as something more than a prop for Tiny Tim's "Tiptoe Through the Tulips." Says Jim: "Rather than it being this simpleminded instrument, it was capable of making beautiful, sophisticated songs." The problem was, ukes were in short supply. So, Jim and his brother-in-law, Dale Webb, "developed a prototype of a colorful plastic instrument."
"They called it the Fluke -- merging the first letters of flea (a nod to the birth of the idea) with "uke." They began building them in an "old gas station in New Hartford, Conn." and selling them online at fleamarketmusic.com, "ranging in price from $144 to $179." Today, they've got five employees and make up to "5,000 ukuleles a year." In addition to the songbooks, Jim "has recorded several CDs and instructional DVDs. He has also started an annual celebration called Uketopia, recently held for the 10th year." Where had the uke been all those years? Jim blames Elvis and the Beatles for diverting everyone to electric guitars (obviously he never met George Harrison). In any case, Jim says his business is making about a half mil a year. "It pays the bills and keeps us out of trouble," he says.
Tim Manners
editor
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©2005 reveries.com |
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