Cuddie Wuddie
Tibo : double bass, voice
Enno : guitar, banjo, voice
Antonio : Hawaiian guitar, lapsteel, vocals
Flavio : ukulele, voice

Photo credits : Séverine Gonzalez

Traditional Hawaiian music

It all began in the summer of 1879, when Manuel Nunes, José do Espírito Santo and Augusto Dias, three cabinetmakers from Madeira who had knowledge of violin making and apparently carried their cavaquinhos, landed in Hawaii. While waiting to find work, they began to play on the docks. The locals fell in love with this noble little instrument and instantly renamed it ukulele, the jumping chip, because of the speed of the finger movements!

Manuel, José and Augusto became so famous that their music even enchanted the King, David Kalākaua, known as "the joyful monarch". The latter, a music lover, allowed the introduction of the ukulele in the Hawaiian hulas (traditional dances). The story could have ended there but the King died in 1891 and his sister Lili'uokalani, became the new Queen of Hawaii. She continued the musical work of her brother. Unfortunately, the American expansionist agenda eventually got the better of the small Pacific kingdom and in 1893, the Queen was overthrown.

She began a long exile to plead the cause of her lost kingdom. The Queen then decided to perpetuate the preservation of the memory of her people, notably by the realization of some 160 traditional Hawaiian songs. Her songs still resonate today, especially her song Aloha 'Oe, which became the Hawaiian national anthem.

The Queen died in 1917 but Manuel's children, José and Augusto, decided to devote their lives to the preservation and transmission of this beautiful Hawaiian music. Their exile led them first from Portugal to France, then from Italy to Germany. Finally, in 2020, their great-great-great grandchildren settled in Mau'razi'i, in the canton of Vaud. They decided to create a free republic dedicated to the perpetuation of Hawaiian music, its spirit and its virtue. This is how Antonio, Enno, Tibo and Flavio formed Cuddie Wuddie.

Wednesday, 30 March 2022
20h

Centre Pluriculturel et social d’Ouchy
Ch. Beau-Rivage 2
1006 Lausanne
https://www.cpo-ouchy.ch/spectacles/cuddie-wuddie/