UKEtopia!: Adventures in the Ukulele World

by Jim Beloff

When Billboard Associate Publisher, Jim Beloff purchased his first ukulele at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in 1992, there were no ukulele songbook collections on the market— none —just a few vintage instructional books. As an already-accomplished guitarist, this frustrated Jim, who had fallen in love instantly with this little instrument. Sensing that there might be an opportunity to fill this void, he and his graphic-artist wife, Liz, created Flea Market Music, Inc., which, for thirty years, has published more than three dozen song and instructional books, totaling over one million copies in print. They have also grown the ukulele market through their influential fleamarketmusic.com website, the creation of the popular UKEtopia concert series, marketing and promoting their family's line of ukuleles, consulting on two major museum shows, and a continuous performing schedule. At the same time, Jim (aka Jumpin' Jim ) wrote the first complete full-color history book on the ukulele, recorded, and produced nearly a dozen CDs, made three instructional DVDs, composed two ukulele concertos for symphony orchestra, penned numerous articles for ukulele and trade magazines, and continues to lead workshops at uke festivals throughout the world. Today, Jim and Liz are recognized as having played a major role in the current third wave of ukulele popularity. They've also accumulated a lot of wonderful stories and photographs in their almost three decades of ukulele adventures that are included in UKEtopia! Jim also recounts some stories of memorable experiences trading licks and working with celebrities such as George Harrison, Bette Midler, William H. Macy, Eddie Vedder and, yes, Tiny Tim.

Genres: Music

248 pages, Hardcover

Published December 10, 2021

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jim Beloff and his wife are the power couple in the ukulele world. Their love of the instrument steered them into the creation of Flea Market Music and dozens of books of music. Pretty much every ukulele musician has their Daily Ukulele or one of the Jumpin' Jim songbooks. This has helped drive the current love of the instrument that they have devoted their lives to. This book is the story of their journey, from the early connections to today and the colorful characters that they met along the way.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

this is some chronology of how some guy made some books which sold well because he had friends who could offer him exposure.