Adapted from L.A. Jazz Scene, April,  2006. Bill Tapia is still going strong as he nears his 100^th birthday on January 1, 2008!

Bill Tapia©John Berger for the Star Bulletin

L.A. Jazz Scene: Bill, it is nice to be with you this morning. How did you get started?

B.T.: When I was seven years old, I lived in Honolulu, in a place called Kukini and Sereno Lane. Every night there were Hawaiians who would sit on walls and crates and play music. I snuck out of the house and watched the ukulele player, and got to hold his ukulele, and I learned two chords, C and F. The leader of the group was a big fat guy. His stomach was so big he had to put his guitar on top of his stomach. He saw I was interested and he said, “Where did you learn to play that, kid?” I said, “I was watching that guy.” Then he said, “Do you want to learn to play the ukulele? You come over to my house tomorrow.” I couldn’t sleep that night. My mother got me a couple of cups of warm milk to get me to go to sleep.

So next day, I go over to the guy’s house and he said, “Where is your ukulele?” I said, “I haven’t got one. You loan me yours.” He said, “No, I can’t do that. You have to get your own. You got any money?” I said, “I got 75 cents saved in a coffee can. I saved nickels and dimes.” He said, “A good ukulele costs $3.00 and one inlaid costs $5.00. So, you go over to Nunes [a ukulele maker right around the corner from where I live] and tell him you want an old ukulele that doesn’t cost so much.” This Nunes was a big guy who didn’t want us hanging around there. So I said, “I want to buy an old ukulele that doesn’t cost so much money.” He got a couple of them and said, “How do you like this one?” I didn’t know a darn thing about the ukulele. I just wanted to get out there quick. He said, “Give me dollar and a quarter.” I said, “No, seventy-five cents. That’s all the money I have.” He said, “Give me that seventy-five cents and get the hell out of here.” And all I took in my life was two lessons from this guy and I picked up rest myself.

I played the ukulele religiously until I was about 16. Then I worked with Johnny Noble’s band. I wanted to work with bands at the Moana Hotel, Honolulu playing banjo. He heard me play the uke in a cabstand and said, “Wish you knew how to play banjo. I need a banjo to play in my band.” Then I said, “I play banjo.” I lied to him. He said, “Come over to rehearsal Wednesday.” I went over to the pawnshop and bought a beat-up banjo for a few bucks, and I tuned it like a ukulele. He didn’t know the difference. So, I went over to his house for the audition and I made it! So I played with him until I was a little over sixteen and I got a job on ships going to San Francisco. I played ukulele when they played Hawaiian music. Then after dinner, we had the dance band and I played banjo.

Bill Tapia©Glenn A. Mitchell

So I came back to Hollywood. I worked some Hawaiian jobs, and all those places, the Seven Seas, and Sid Grauman’s theater. Then I returned to Honolulu just before World War II broke out. I was there just a few days and they wouldn’t let any civilians leave. You had to take a defense job or be in the Army. I worked at the USO and also I worked privately. I had an eighteen-piece band. I had guys like Red Callendar, C.P. Johnson. We had to play in a black-out ballroom. We had to memorize the God-darn music. We had to stand up and couldn’t see in the dark. We had black-out drapes. Right after the war, I came back to the Mainland.

L.A. Jazz Scene: Were you born in Hawaii? And your family, were they musical?

B.T.: Yes, born in Hawaii. I had one brother. He played, but never made the big time. He played saxophone, clarinet, steel guitar. He played more instruments than me, but he wasn’t great. He was an ordinary player.

L.A. Jazz Scene: So after the war, you were able to get out of Hawaii and go other places?

B.T. I came right back to the Mainland on a ship. The ship wasn’t even finished. They refurbished it. You see, during the war they took all the ships and after the war they were refurbishing. They were still fixing it, so I left on the Matsonian.

L.A. Jazz Scene: When you got back here, who were some of the memorable people you worked with?

B.T.: I worked with Al Heur and Sam Donahue. He was a great sax player. He played with Goodman and Kenton. I played with Phil Harris’s band. You heard of him?

L.A. Jazz Scene: Yes I have. You worked with Charlie Barnet’s band too?

B.T.: Yeah. I worked with Vito Musso at the King Theater, Honolulu, 1936. After the war I wanted to go and live in Hollywood, but I didn’t like it here, then I went up North to San Francisco. I lived in San Francisco for 56 years. I liked it there. I worked in all these places there. I worked with Knoval Knight, a big band. We were working on NBC and broadcasting nationwide.

L.A. Jazz Scene: When did you start playing the guitar?

B.T.: I was playing banjo in this band at Ocean Park Ballroom. Everybody loved it, but the bands were changing over to guitar and during an intermission the leader came over and said he wanted to talk with me. He said, “I’m sorry I have to let you go.” I said, “Why, what’s the matter?” He said, “All the bands are changing over to guitar.” I said, “Well, give me a chance, I’ll play guitar.” He said, “Do you know how to play guitar?” I said, “No, I just know a few chords.” He said, “Well, how long do you think it will take?” I said, “Give me no longer than three weeks.” I was living in a rooming house. In those days musicians lived in rooming houses with room and board, not in apartments. This was way back. The landlady thought I was going nuts. I would get home from the job and stay up all night to learn guitar. I figured the guitar from my banjo strings. This is C and figured out all from my banjo. So after, not even three weeks, I went on the job. I bought a beat-up Alpine guitar from the pawnshop. In the band we were playing some blues that night. Ninety-five percent of guitar players just played chords then. In those days you had to play into a mic. Instruments weren’t amplified. I go up and I played the melody and the guys in the band screamed. They said, “You’re on!” And from that time on, I sat on guitar and I never took a lesson.

L.A. Jazz Scene: What was that bandleader’s name?

B.T.: Phil Harris.

L.A. Jazz Scene: You also play mandolin?

B.T.: I play mandolin, banjo, steel guitar, standard guitar, bass, ukulele.

L.A. Jazz Scene: And who else did you work with in San Francisco?

B.T. Kenny McCall, Bob Hackett. Then I had my own groups. I worked steady until I was about eighty years old. Then I worked casuals. I taught at Sherman Clay. I used to teach privately, 105 students a week. That was sixteen a day, every half hour for eight hours a day. Then the guy who owned the studio said, “People are complaining that you don’t call anyone anymore.” I said, “I don’t have room.” I told him that I would work to noon on Sundays only. I still worked some steady jobs at night. I don’t know how I’m living if you ask me.

L.A. Jazz Scene: And your secrets for maintaining good health?

B.T.: Walking. I walked 7 – 8 miles everyday until I was 87. And I exercised with irons for a half hour. I rode a bicycle ten miles a day to St. Mary’s College, five miles each way, and ate the proper vegetables. Eat a lot of raw vegetables. My mom helped me out to eat right early as I was growing up. I smoked until I was 87, from age 11 to 87 and then quit because I had angina.

L.A. Jazz Scene: Now, that’s very interesting. Did you have wine to go with it?

B.T.: Never. Once in a great while I would take a glass of whisky to be sociable. I never developed a taste for liquor.

L.A. Jazz Scene: When you worked with Louie Armstrong, what year was that?

B.T.: I didn’t work with him. I jammed with him in 1932.

L.A. Jazz Scene: Bill, we have a lot of information here – all very interesting. Thanks for the privilege of interviewing you.

About a year ago Bill Tapia sat in with legendary trumpeter and vocalist, Jack Sheldon. Tapia played jazz ukulele and was so given to the audience that they just did not want to let him leave the stage at Steamers in Orange County. He is truly a marvel and a legend in his own right. See his website, www.billtapia.com

The 100^th Birthday Celebration for Bill Tapia gets underway early in November, with the mainland party in San Pedro, CA. Visit http://panioloproductions.com/100thBDayFlier.jpg for a flyer with party information.

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