The East Coast is now home to Jumpin' Jim Beloff of Flea Market Music and The Flea caught his first performance as a Connecticut resident.  Beloff was the very special guest of the recently formed Glastonbury Ukulele Club run by Dr. Uke (a.k.a. Dr. Jim Rosokoff). 

Dr. Uke deserves a Nobel-Uke Prize for his outstanding promotion of the ukulele in Connecticut.  He runs the Glastonbury Ukulele Club, teaches ukulele to elementary students, adult education students, and seniors at the Glastonbury Senior Center.  In addition, he is in two ukulele bands; The Jim Rosokoff Trio, and The Glastonbury Ukulele Band.  Visit Dr. Uke's website to learn more and to download some great songs.

Dr. Uke began the fourth meeting of the Glastonbury Ukulele Club with a beginner session and then moved on to more advanced material.  Club members can print out songs from Dr. Uke's website in advance or follow along with songs projected on a screen.  Dr. Uke runs a tight ship and the meeting runs very much like a workshop with a well-prepared lesson plan.  He gave hints on alternate fingering of chords and explained how the chord progression in some songs can easily be transferred to many other similar songs.  The meeting was held in "The Regatta Room" of the Laurel Gardens Assisted Living Center and many residents stopped by to enjoy the music.  Everyone also enjoyed some nice refreshments which were served during a break.  Ukulele luminaries in attendance also included Dale and Phyllis Webb of Flea Market Music and Geoffrey Rezek of The Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum, and The Ukulele Society of Connecticut.

After refreshments, Jumpin' Jim treated the crowd to several original songs and some standards.  "Blues on a Ukulele" really caught The Flea's attention.  It's a pretty song written by Beloff and Herb Ohta.  The audience sang along with "Happy Trails" and "Bye Bye Blackbird."  Beloff also did a chord solo of "White Christmas" to help ring in the season.  See the video below.

The Flea also got a chance to see and hear the new and improved Fluke.....the Koa Fluke.   This is truly, a beautiful sounding instrument.  It comes with a Koa top and rosewood fingerboard.  Best of all, the bridge is wood(bubinga), not plastic.  These improvements have given the Fluke a much more traditional uke sound that competes with much more expensive concert and tenor "figure 8" ukes.  Make sure you give it a try next Expo or Uke Fest. -The Flea