12/23/2023 0 Comments Ukelele musicians“When I told my wife the story of of how we used to listen to his records all the time and try to figure out the songs, she said, ‘Why don’t you bring him to Hawaii?’ And I said, ‘That’s a great idea.’ And I went out to Simi Valley (in Los Angeles) and I knocked on his door,” Sakuma recalled. Sakuma never forgot how ukulele players tried to mimic Ritz’s style of playing in the ’50s and his signature tune, a cover of “Lulu’s Back in Town.” Then, in 1984, Hawaii’s foremost ukulele teacher, Roy Sakuma, decided to track him down. In 1979, Ritz played ukulele on the movie soundtrack “The Jerk,” starring Steve Martin. Two things brought him back to his first musical love. I just loved it so much,” Ritz said in a 2007 interview.Īfter Ritz served a stint in the Army, jazz guitarist Barney Kessel got him his first record deal, and Ritz put out a second one before hanging up his uke. And I picked it up and played a few chords on it, and I was gone. “One day, somebody wanted to see this beautiful, nice tenor uke. The multi-instrumentalist taught himself how to play the ukulele when he worked in a music store in Los Angeles and had to sell them. And he played jazz standards with top-notch jazz musicians.” Nobody played jazz like that on the ukulele before. “Then, Lyle came along and he played these jazz standards with these rich harmonies that are really challenging to play, and he opened up our ears and eyes to a new style of playing. “Before Lyle Ritz, ukulele players in Hawaii, for the most part, played songs with simple chords, two or three chords,” Yasui said. “You know like how Elvis Presley was to a lot of kids, Lyle Ritz was like that for me, like a god, that’s how big an impact he made on, not just me, but a bunch of us,” said the retired professor of music at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who also performed onstage with Ritz. “He was a good friend and a big influence in my life because, coincidentally, we both played the same instruments, bass and ukulele. Living in Los Angeles back then, Ritz had no idea he had influenced Hawaii musicians like Byron Yasui, who said he is saddened by the loss of Ritz. So instead, he took up the bass and became part of the legendary Wrecking Crew, a group of Hollywood studio musicians who played on most of the pop hits that came out of Los Angeles from the mid-1960s to the early ’80s, including “Good Vibrations” and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” When Ritz released his groundbreaking album “How About Uke?” nearly 60 years ago, it didn’t generate much interest on the mainland. He died peacefully after a long illness under hospice care Friday in Portland, Ore., according to his wife, Geri Ritz. Lyle Ritz, the revered bassist for “The Wrecking Crew” and pioneering jazz ukulele player, who made a huge impact on musicians in Hawaii, has died at 87.
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