BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - When a friend began suffering from dementia, Andy King wanted to help him retain his memory. So, he created something memorable.
A ukulele orchestra.
If the very idea sounds whimsical - this humble stringed instrument as the basis for a large ensemble - that’s part of the attraction.
Besides, the St. Alban’s Ukulele Orchestra’s 17 musicians think you may be underestimating the ukulele’s charms.
“It’s kind of an addiction, because once you start playing it, you want to play it all the time,” said Cathy Raborn, who joined the group in 2017. “You want to carry it with you everywhere you go.”
The concept isn’t unique. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain has been entertaining audiences in arenas as grand as Royal Albert Hall, the Sydney Opera House and Carnegie Hall for more than 30 years.
The local orchestra’s venues aren’t quite as grand and the gigs not as prestigious.
Baton Rouge’s own ukulele orchestra plays two concerts each year at St. Alban’s Chapel at LSU, where it began, and every few months at the Red Stick Farmers Market, said its director, Charlene Heaton.
One of its original musicians was John Whittaker, retired chairman of LSU’s Philosophy and Religious Studies Department. His dementia diagnosis inspired King to find this activity, which would keep Whittaker’s brain active by singing and playing.
The first performance was in 2015 at St. Alban’s, and the orchestra began taking its show on the road to retirement homes, King said. Whittaker died this summer.
The more the group played, the more people asked to join.
Raborn played the flute in high school but never played a stringed instrument until she heard the orchestra and expressed interest in joining. Her father, Mike Raborn, bought her a banjolele, a hybrid banjo and ukulele, for Christmas in 2016.
“He said, ‘Practice starts Jan. 22. Be there,’” Raborn said. “OK. I never had a lesson. I got in there and learned it as I went along. It’s a great, fantastic group of people.”
Bill Arey started attending St. Alban’s and bought himself a ukulele.
“I’ve been a guitar player for a lot of years, and ukulele has kind of come into vogue a bit,” he said. “There have been some pop songs that have had ukulele in the last couple of years.”
Arey’s right. Ukuleles began in Hawaii and have occasionally become popular outside of Hawaiian music, although often in novelty acts like Tiny Tim in the 1960s. Former Beatle George Harrison loved the ukulele, which earned its place in a variety of performers’ popular songs, including Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister” and Taylor Swift’s “Fearless.”
The local orchestra mixes other instruments such as banjo, bass, guitar and percussion to add to the dominant sound of the ukuleles, which come in various sizes and tones. The orchestra has a repertoire of about 200 songs that include folk, rock and 1940s and ‘50s dance music, King said.
At a Nov. 17 performance at Baton Rouge Gallery, the orchestra played more than a dozen songs, including “City of New Orleans,” “Mr. Bojangles” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?”
Practices are held every Monday.
“We play it because it’s fun,” Heaton said. “It’s accessible for just about anybody, and it’s fun. There’s a real variety of music available for us.”
There are, however, no plans to try to duplicate the success of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
“No aspirations of grandeur,” Heaton said.
“All of us have other jobs,” King said.
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