Source:
Washington Post / APBill Tapia, a jazz guitarist who was in his 90s when he returned to the ukulele he had played as a young man and helped revive the iconic instrument of his native Hawaii, died Dec. 2 at his home in Westminster, Calif. He was 103.
Pat Enos, a friend and caregiver, confirmed Mr. Tapia’s death and said Sunday that the cause had not been determined.
When Mr. Tapia was born, the ukulele — a late-19th-century innovation by Portuguese immigrants — had existed on the Hawaiian islands for about three decades.
He lived long enough to see the instrument become a mainland fascination in the 1920s, fade in popularity for decades and rise again in recent years with the success of pop hits such as Israel “Iz” Kamakawiwo’ole’s Hawaiian arrangement of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
Read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/jazzs-bill-tapia-who-helped-revive-hawaiis-iconic-ukulele-dies-at-103/2011/12/04/gIQABkqHUO_story.html
His music lives on, and you can listen to some of it here
http://www.myspace.com/billtapiahawaii and here
http://billtapia.com/ I particularly enjoyed his rendition of Stars And Stripes Forever.
R.I.P. Bill Tapia 1908-2011
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