The virtuoso musician, songwriter, and educator, whom some have called “the Yo-Yo Ma of the ukulele” answers his cell phone with the sound of a rooster crowing in the background.
“Hello?” says James Hill, a resident of Brookfield, Nova Scotia, and the happy owner of that rooster, one of two, along with nine hens on a 1.6-hectare property that he shares with his wife Anne Janelle Davison, a cellist, and their eight-year-old son, Alder.
“We love it here,” says the internationally known instrumentalist, of the home, community, and region they’ve lived in for 18 years. “We have privacy here in our country home and the East Coast is a place where music is valued.”
He also has a 20-second commute to his studio.
Hill’s old friend, Jack Chen, the general manager of the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra and a flute instructor at Acadia University, gave Hill the nickname related to the great American cellist, Yo-Yo Ma.
“They’re both so engaging and versatile,” says Chen, now based in Halifax. “James goes beyond the instruments in his hands. He’s a true communicator of music. The audience is drawn into the story he tells through the music.”
A log on the fire
In Hawaii, home to the ukulele since 1879, when first brought to its shores by the Portuguese, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin has called Hill a “rare peer” of the archipelago’s premier ukulele players.
Hill, who simply fell in love with an instrument that spoke to him as to few others, is more humble. “I think I’ve put a log on the fire.”
That fire has in fact has become a blazing inferno of joyous creativity and innovation, highlighting the small, four-stringed instrument once viewed by many as modest, even risible. Or, as it says on the musician’s own website, “Hill gives the ukulele back its dignity, without ever taking himself too seriously.”
A look on YouTube shows that Hill is committed to expanding musical horizons on the ukulele. The classically trained musician has performed in every musical genre and even wrote a concerto for the ukulele, performed with a full orchestra.
“The ukulele has stature now,” he says with satisfaction.
Hill, 44, has been laser-focused on the instrument for nearly 30 years, as a performer and as a teacher. He has performed and taught around the world: across Canada and the United States, and in Europe, Japan, Singapore, and New Zealand.
As well, Hill’s online business, Uketropolis, which offers ukulele lessons and courses, thrives.
Hill is a regular guest lecturer at the Ukulele and Slack Key Guitar Institute in Waimea, Hawaii. The ukulele, a Hawaiian word, pronounced oo-koo-ley-ley, and not you-ke-ley-ley, is a cherished part of Hawaiian culture.
“The ukulele used to be pocket-sized,” says Hill. “Then the U.S. annexed Hawaii. The Hawaiians used local woods to build their ukuleles, to show alignment with Hawaiian royalty and not the U.S.”
Ukuleles have changed a lot over the years, from the plastic or plywood bodies of the 1960s, to hand-crafted beauties, like those made first in Hawaii. The 2000s saw the greatest change.
“That’s when luthiers came on board,” says Hill.
Hill has more ukuleles than he can count. “If you still know how many you have, you haven’t got enough,” he laughs. He’s silent a moment, gamely trying to count the instruments in his studio, then gives up. “They’re just everywhere.”
Among the standouts are a tenor and a baritone ukulele from Oregon-based luthier, Pat Megowan. “His instruments play beautifully,” says Hill. “The sound is huge and luxurious.”
Available in up to 10 sizes with four main types, soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone, the modern high-end ukulele is made from a mix of luxury hard and soft woods such as spruce, cedar, and redwood for the tops, and maple, Hawaiian koa, rosewood, ebony, and walnut for the backs. Many are as embellished and stunning as the most expensive guitars on the market, and like these, have cutaways, which make it easier to access upper frets on the neck, and pickups for broader electric sound. Some, still, are made simply, affordable for a beginner.
That last bit is where this story goes deeper.
It’s impossible to detail Hill’s career without naming another distinguished Nova Scotian, musician, author, and educator, J. Chalmers Doane. Doane’s far-reaching ukulele musical program, and companion book The Teacher’s Guide to Classroom Ukulele inspired Hill to choose not only a life in music, but a life with a ukulele at the centre of it.
Born and raised in Langley, B.C., Hill was the beneficiary of a program designed in Halifax, N.S., and available to school children across Canada. Hill learned from Jamie Thomas, a former student of Doane’s from Nova Scotia.
Doane intended that the ukulele, playable and affordable, would serve as an entrée into music and the study of symphony instruments. He would go on to design reasonably priced, “Doane-branded” ukuleles that had quality sound and were notable for their triangular shape.
“I was supposed to be a jeweller,” says Doane, “and to follow in my father’s footsteps.” Instead, at a local college, he began studying how to teach music. Doane later received a degree in music education from Boston University, where he studied the trombone as his major, along with an array of other instruments.
Now 85, Doane lives in South Maitland, N.S., with his wife Jean, a retired nurse and homemaker. The couple has three adult children, all noted musicians. Doane himself is still “gigging,” sometimes with Hill, sometimes with his band.
Doane and Hill became friends when Hill and his wife relocated to Nova Scotia in the early 2000s. In 2016, they co-authored an ebook series together, Ukulele in the Classroom, which promotes musical literacy via the ukulele. Now they meet once a week for a game of pool. “Sometimes we talk so much about music that we don’t get many games in,” laughs Doane, a keen competitor.
The two men are also one another’s biggest boosters.
“James Hill is the closest I’ll ever come to meeting some of the great musicians of the past,” says Doane. “Sometimes I think I could be listening to Niccolò Paganini. He can play a whole orchestra on his ukulele. And he loves the idea of passing music on. He can do things that no one else can do, where he sounds like a set of drums, an accompanying chord, and two-part harmony, all at once. And vocals!”
The admiration is mutual. “Chalmers is a great friend and mentor,” says Hill. “He’s also like my musical grandfather. He taught the people who taught me. He’s a boy from Truro who lives and breathes music. He has an insatiable appetite for learning. He could teach a rooster to sing.”
Perhaps even a rooster, or two, in Brookfield.
Hill has a keen interest in the creative meeting ground between the professional and the amateur musician. With help from innovative crowd sourcing, he recently created a “fan-collab album” titled Uke-Heads, a 10-song collection recorded at his studio, with contributions from 165 players and singers from 15 countries. He combines this collaborative work with his regular touring schedule, finding life balance between the two.
“Maybe it’s mid-life musings,” says Hill, “but at some point, as a musician, you go through a bit of an ego-death. This makes you lucky. Playing fast and loud to big applause, eventually, it doesn’t sustain you. I needed more substance and humanity. I’m connecting to people around the world through music.”
He pauses.
“The ukulele is a young instrument with so many places it can go. It’s also a lightning rod for community. And life is brighter with community and friendship. It’s magic.”