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40 albums · 1924–2017

The ukulele, from Honolulu and vaudeville to jazz and the songwriters of today

· 1 min read · by 1001 Albums

A small four-string ukulele of light brown wood with a round sound hole and a scrolled headstock, standing against a grey ground
Cliff Edwards in a hat, seated on a boat and playing a ukulele beside a portable phonograph, a man at the wheel and a woman holding a record beside himJake Shimabukuro in a cap and a white T-shirt, seated on stage with one knee raised, playing a ukulele
A ukulele made in Hawaii, dated about 1880, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Cliff Edwards, Ukulele Ike, with Frank Raye and Betty Brewer on the yacht Ukelele Lady on the Hudson River, New York, around June 1947. Photo: William P. Gottlieb, Library of Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. · Jake Shimabukuro at the Stockholm Jazz Festival in 2009. Photo: Henryk Kotowski, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The ukulele is a small guitar with four nylon strings, most often tuned G, C, E and A with the G string high, so it sounds light and bright. It grew from the machete that immigrants from Madeira brought to Hawaii in 1879, and Manuel Nunes, Augusto Dias and José do Espírito Santo made the first ones in Honolulu.

The Hawaiian pavilion at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915 helped make it a craze on the mainland. In the twenties Cliff Edwards, known as Ukulele Ike, sang to it on records and in vaudeville, and in England George Formby played the banjolele in the music hall and in films. Lyle Ritz played jazz on it in Los Angeles. In Hawaii Eddie Kamae and Ohta-San played melodies on it, and Jake Shimabukuro plays rock and his own tunes. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole and Eddie Vedder sang to it.

The list has 40 records from 1924 to 2017; the oldest are later collections, dated by the first year of their recordings. Deezer does not have Facing Future, so Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's is a collection. Records where a ukulele plays in a band behind a singer are left out. About 29 hours of music, 4 days of a few records each.

What it sounds like

A piece by Henry Kailimai, published in 1916, on a wooden ukuleleUkepedia, ukulele, recorded in 2005

Recording: Ukepedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

By genre

World 15%Jazz 11%Rock 11%Other 63%
  • World 15%
  • Jazz 11%
  • Rock 11%
  • Other 63%

The genres named most: ukulele, hawaiian, jazz, instrumental, rock, folk.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 4 countries: United States 34, United Kingdom 3, Canada 2, New Zealand 1. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1920s

The 1930s

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

More lists

Lists of Instruments first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.

29 albums · 1976–2024

The kora of Mali, the harp-lute of the jeli

· 1 min read

The kora is the harp-lute of the jeli, the griots of Mali, Guinea, Senegal and the Gambia: 21 strings over a large calabash covered in cowhide, played with the thumbs and forefingers of both hands.

World 89%Blues 3%Classical 3%Other 5%
  • World 89%
  • Blues 3%
  • Classical 3%
  • Other 5%

Read and see the list