Hawaiian Music of the Past and Present

The legendary Bill "Tappy" Tapia was born in Honolulu in 1908 and he started his career as a musician at age 10, playing his own arrangement of "Stars and Stripes Forever" on the ukulele for World War I troups. Bill worked Hawaii's vaudville circuit as a young teen in the 1920's and in 1927 he played at the grand opening of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. He played a gig in Waikiki the night before Pearl Harbor was bombed and throughout World War II he and his band played at Hawaii nightclubs and military bases, sometimes in the pitch dark during wartime blackouts. At age 101 Bill Tapia is teaching ukulele to a new generation of musicians and still performing on stage, singing and playing ukulele, banjo, and jazz guitar. My ukulele teacher, the amazing Bill Tapia, turned 101 on January 1, 2009. Here are some photos of his 101st birthday party, during which he performed to a packed house of fellow musicians, students, family and friends.

Photos of Bill Tapia's 101st Birthday Party