Miss Rose and Her Rhythm Percolators brings the art of the ukulele to Orcas Island this Saturday afternoon and evening
Contributed by Mark Morris
On Saturday, March 13, travel back in time to the earliest days of the Jazz Age with Miss Rose & Her Rhythm Percolators. They’re playing one show only, at 8:00 p.m., at the Odd Fellows Hall in Eastsound. Orcas’ Charly Robinson will open the show with a set of her own. It’s a family-friendly, all-ages event. A portion of the proceeds from the show will benefit the Orcas Island Education Foundation.
The Seattle-based quartet faithfully re-creates the vintage jazz of the early 1920s to the mid ’30s—the era when this original American music provided a playful soundtrack for the flappers who danced the Charleston and sipped illicit booze in the glitzy underworld of the speakeasy.
Miss Rose & Her Rhythm Percolators play well-known popular tunes that have since become part of the great American songbook and dust off forgotten gems from the early jazz era. Audiences delight at the unabashed romance, the playful humor, and the irresistible swing rhythms. Some can’t help but dance or sing along.
To fully transport audiences, the band members dress in period clothing, share some of the music’s history, and run a slideshow of art and photos from the era during performances.
Singer Sunga Rose croons and strums a ukulele while the Percolators—Ericka Kendall (upright bass), Holly Michelle Eckert (piano/violin), and Carey Rayburn (trumpet/flugelhorn)—keep time and knock out solos. Miss Rose & Her Rhythm Percolators revive for modern times a wonderful sound from a bygone era.
Come enjoy the band in their premiere San Juan Islands concert appearance.
Dancing is strongly encouraged. A selection of beer, wine, and nonalcoholic beverages will be available for purchase. Tickets are $10 per person, available in advance at Darvill’s Bookstore, Orcas Elementary School, Gordeaux’s, and Eastsound Instruments. For more information, call 376-3148.
Also on Saturday, March 13, Sunga Rose will lead two ukulele workshops at the Odd Fellows Hall:
Beginning Ukulele (age 10 – Adult)
2–3:30 p.m., $30
The ukulele is experiencing a new rise in popularity. Don’t you wish you too could play this extremely versatile and portable instrument? Come on! Jump on the bandwagon! This workshop truly is for absolute beginners. I’ll get you started with a few simple chords and some basic strums and send you off with a nice packet of songs to work on. You’ll be surprised at the number of songs you can play with only 2 or 3 chords! Bring your ukulele tuned G-C-E-A.
Intermediate Ukulele: Let’s go to the bar!
3:30-5 p.m., $30
Bar chords aren’t that scary, and adding a few to your uke arsenal is a great way to grow as a player. We’ll learn by working on some popular tunes and replacing your old “open” chords with “closed” chords (bar and other closed chords, too). You’ll be relieved to find that this will actually make some chord transitions much easier! We’ll also cover some music theory that will give you the tools to find many versions of the same chord all over your uke. Students should be comfortable with the basics and be able to change chords smoothly. Bring your ukulele tuned G-C-E-A.
If you’d like to pre-register for either workshop or have any questions, please contact Miss Rose at contact@missroserhythm.com.
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