James Hill with Anne Janelle: Friday, April 5
James Hill with Anne Janelle: Friday, April 5. 8:00 pm. $15 at the door. SOLD-OUT! James Hill, who has earned a reputation as
Canada’s foremost – indeed one of the world’s foremost – players of the often-underestimated ukulele, stands poised and ready to take his place in the ranks of today’s best young songwriters. Barely into his 30s, he has achieved his technical prowess on ukulele through attacking the lowly folk instrument with the seriousness and nuance of technique usually associated with the highest levels of virtuosity. His entertaining and unpredictable solo concerts and his inspirational music seminars have made him something of a ukulele-based motivational speaker. And now, Hill’s latest album introduces us to Hill as singer/songwriter, a choice which is growing to rival his prowess as an instrumentalist. Man With a Love Song, brings the rock-solid musicianship of Hill and his collaborators, the clear strength of Hill’s singing voice, the poetry of the lyrics, and a playful breadth of the styles (from soulful big-band jazz through barrel-house bluegrass to spoken-word-and-junkyard-percussion). www.jameshillmusic.com Cellist/singer Anne Janelle (formerly
Anne Davison) moves gracefully between classical and contemporary styles, experimenting deeply with free improvisation in both music and dance. Her songs, teeming with complexity and candour, are a special blend of influences that range from Nick Drake and Feist to Mozart and Vivaldi. Her musical mélange swirls with emotion, compelling imagery, diverse orchestration and her captivatingly sweet voice. Since 2006 she has performed widely with James Hill; their acclaimed collaboration True Love Don’t Weep won Traditional Album of the Year at the 2009 Canadian Folk Music Awards. http://www.annejanelle.com
Background: How does a kid from Canada become what the Honolulu Star-Bulletin calls a “rare peer” of Hawaii’s premier ukulele players? James Hill grew up nearly three thousand miles east of Honolulu in the town of Langley, British Columbia, where ukulele
instruction has been mandatory in many schools since the late 1970s. To his fourth grade classmates, the ukulele was a means to an end, a way for them to dip their toes into the vast ocean of music. For James, the uke was a sea of possibilities unto itself and inside its tiny wooden shell he saw his life in music. He was hooked.
During his teenage years he honed his skills as a key member of the renowned Langley Ukulele Ensemble and as a student at the Langley Community Music School. James continued his study of music at the University of British Columbia where he earned a Bachelor of Music Degree in 2002. In a full-circle plot twist, James – also a passionate teacher – went on to co-author the Ukulele in the Classroom method book series with J. Chalmers Doane, the trail-blazing teacher who pioneered the use of ukuleles in Canadian schools.
A seasoned performer with an ever-growing fan base in North America, Asia and Europe, James has garnered wide acclaim for his ground-breaking approach to the chronically-underestimated ukulele. Over the course of his first three genre-defying albums – Playing it like it isn’t… (2002), On the Other Hand (2003) and A Flying Leap (2006) – he re-wrote every rule that had previously kept the ukulele in the realm of novelty and obscurity. Then came the Canadian-Folk-Music-Award-winning True Love Don’t Weep (2009, Borealis Records), his collaboration with cellist/singer Anne Janelle, an album that pushed the budding singer/songwriter into new territory, topped folk radio charts in North America and opened doors to festival stages across the continent. Hill’s latest album, Man With a Love Song, is a sweeping panorama of original songs and instrumentals that more than fulfils the promise of his earlier work.
