For years, Lee Courtney was the guy at WMNF 88.5-FM’s long-running, since-retooled Tropical Heatwave festival wearing sneakers plus old, funky pants and a completely ripped-up T-shirt. For first-timers, it might’ve been mildly jarring, but over the course of the night — and over the course of years for many festival goers — seeing Courtney (better known to the community radio station’s listeners as “Flee”) in his Heatwave uniform became endearing. It was almost comforting in a way. The 62-year-old’s love for community, and his deeper adoration of the chemical reactions music creates inside of our bodies, has that effect on people, and on Saturday, Flee is actually going to dress that passion up in a real-life tuxedo.
“I’ve got a couple tuxes actually, and I look fabulous when I wear them,” Flee, who arrived at the station in the mid-’90s, joked during a phone call with CL.
The occasion is the international premiere of the Ukulele Orchestra of Florida. Flee first got into the sounds of the four-stringed instrument after seeing Japanese duo Petty Booka at South By Southwest about 20 years ago. He eventually found one of the group’s CDs while record shopping, and that initial interaction spiraled into extended flirtations with other bands like Dent May (listen to the California songwriter’s 2009 album The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele).
“Petty Booka did really cool, Hawaiian-sounding versions of ‘Material Girl’ and ‘Karma Chameleon’ — you obviously can tell that the CD is 20 years old since it has covers of songs from a different day, but I really liked it,” Flee said.
“It seemed to be all these people would do at least one or two ukulele songs on their album. That was it for me. I loved it. They’re often kitschy covers, and I love it even more when it’s stuff like that.”
Eventually, Flee landed at recordings and video clips of the award-winning Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. That inspired him to try and put together the aforementioned Ukulele Orchestra of Florida, a 15-piece ensemble that would not have happened without the help of Tampa Bay songwriter Rebecca Michela. Flee got to talking to Michela after her band, JCT 27, played one of WMNF’s many tribute shows.
“I said, ‘I love your ukulele band, it’s great. I’d love to do a festival.’ She said, ‘Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it, too,’” Flee explained.
Michela now arranges all of the bands for WMNF’s ukulele fest, which is on its fourth iteration after spending its first two years at the since-closed Ybor location of New World Brewery. She already had a name for the festival when Flee first approached her: “Uke It Out.”
“Then I told her, ‘That’s a perfect name, now we have to do it,’” Flee said.
Under the patio roof of Uke It Out’s new St. Petersburg home at Cage Brewing, the Ukulele Orchestra of Florida will play some classical (Pachelbel’s “Canon In D,” whether you like it or not) along with other music. The day also includes sets from seven local ukulele-wielding bands, food trucks, ukulele displays, Hawaiian shirt booths and a custom Cage beer called The Flyin’ Hawaiian. There’ll even be interactive parts of the itinerary including a program-opening Beatles jam and the much-anticipated “Eric Clapton of the ukulele contest” dubbed “Uku-Layla.”
Flee — who came to Florida via Connecticut — is a failed drummer who quit lessons in second grade after his teacher made him play a drum practice pad instead of the real thing. He doesn’t play ukulele, but he’s been taken aback by the community that clings to the instrument. He’s excited about the fact that a majority of Uke It Out’s attendees bring their own ukes to the festival, and he wants folks on the fence about bringing one to just do it.
“I’ve discovered over the years that ukulele is as much a participation sport as it is a listening sport. People love to play and sing together, so we’re having lessons for the first half-hour,” Flee said, adding that the ukulele faction is one of the most welcoming he’s ever experienced.
“They’ll show you and they just help each other out. It’s the people’s instrument.”
Flee was laid off from WMNF in 2010 after the recession forced the elimination of three staff positions (the staffers were hired back weeks later after a one-time, in-kind donation saved the jobs that were cut). He didn’t have much support when he first had an idea to do a ukulele fest, but those around him have warmed up since he and Michela organized the first Uke It Out. He cites a recent St. Petersburg show by Tune-Yards (which opened for David Byrne in October) when talking about the power of the diminutive instrument, but he’s mostly attracted to the saccharine nature of the thing.
“It seems like almost anything you play on the ukulele sounds sweet. It just sounds good and happy,” he said. “You could sing, ‘I chopped my arm off and hit a guy over the head with it,’ — even a lyric like that would sound so sweet on the ukulele.”
Flee will have that tuxedo on when he conducts the orchestra on Saturday, but he couldn’t afford actual tuxes for members of the ensemble.
“Turns out real tuxes are expensive, so I found this place where you can get tux T-shirts; everyone is going to be dressed in those,” Flee explained.
A T-shirt isn’t quite the same thing as formal wear, but the sentiment will come across just fine. The casual attire is kind of fitting, actually. Ukulele may be one of the smallest, often-overlooked and satirized of stringed instruments, but it can still pack a lot of emotional punch. And it’s definitely built a following here in Tampa Bay.
“Something about those four strings sounds really cool,” Flee said. He’s right, and there’s no need to dress that up in the slightest.
Uke It Out 4.0: The 4th Annual WMNF Ukulele Fest w/Ukulele Orchestra of Florida/Applebutter Express Duo/Peter Moss/JCT 27/The Rebekah Pulley Twosome/Tom Hood & Tropical Sons/Anika Sky/Reenee and the Rollers/more. Sat. Dec. 1, 3 p.m. $12. Cage Brewing, 2001 1st Ave. S., St Petersburg. wmnf.org.
This article appears in Nov 29 – Dec 6, 2018.