Bill Tapia receives a gift

Last April, I was lucky enough to have Bill Tapia perform at the shop on my birthday. During that visit, Bill fell in love with Mary's Dias reproduction soprano ukulele. Bill talked about how it reminded him of his first ukulele (a Nunes) and how he had a very small ukulele just like it that used to fit in his jacket pocket. A couple of weeks later, I get this phone call. It's Bill Tapia. He is in the car (somewhere in the Northwest, at 101 years old!) going off to another gig, and he called to ask about purchasing a Dias reproduction. I had a nice conversation and gave him some info and the price for the ukulele. I thought he might call back, but I did not hear back from him, so I decided to build him a Dias reproduction as time permitted. Well, Bill Tapia played at the new Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley last Sunday, September 27, 2009 and during the intermission I got to present the ukulele to him.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• music
• ukulele
• DaSilva
• soprano
• Dias
• Bill
• Tapia
• Freight
• and
• Salvage

[Zetunez]

A wonderful heart warming video.... Bill is a true inspiration..he received a gift and we enjoyed a great performance..there is so much love here in beautiful Hawaii. Thanks for the posting!!

[Kompukim]

My Grandmother played ukelee in Vaudeville with Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland and Sammy Davis Junior, you have always been ne of my ukelele favs Bill. RIP

[SkovGamingDen]

RIP 3/12-2012 :-(

[creeptonian]

This is awesome! RIP Uncle Bill.

[kalanihooya]

WHY CAN'T THE WHOLE WORLD BE LIKE UNCLE BILL TAPIA!??! Okay, okay I'm sorry for being such an impossible idealist. God bless Uncle Bill and all his fans & followers. I can't wait to jam w/ him in heaven...awwwwrite.

[mj2skater]

keep shredding dude! \m/

[ukecycle]

@DomoIsMyBuddy Because it's a soprano. Also it's a reproduction of a turn-of the-century instrument, and they had narrower bodies back then, generally. The ukulele he was playing at the start of the video is a tenor, which is a lot bigger.

[HolyGK]

Bill tapia is awesome

[deepkeel65]

Wow. Chicken skin!  Much aloha to you for such a great gift to one of Hawaii's living treasures.

[madfoot]

that guy is 101?! i'll have what he's having!