“Beat-LeLe: An Ukulele Tribute to the Beatles”

Beat-Lele

(Beatle-Lele Music)

The ukulele and its cousin, the banjolele, an instrument with the body of a banjo and the fretted neck of an ukulele, were popular instruments across the United Kingdom from the 1920s through the early 1950s. Then came rock ’n’ roll and the guitar was king. What might have happened if, say, Les Paul hadn’t started experimenting with the solid-­body electric guitar after World War II, if the guitar had continued to serve pop music primarily as a rhythm instrument and if the Sun Records studio been closed when Elvis Presley stopped by to record a song for his mother in 1953? What would the Beatles have sounded like if John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison had grown up playing ukuleles instead of guitars? Beat-Lele shows what could have been with “Beat-Lele: An Ukulele Tribute to the Beatles.”

Beat-Lele — Sonny Aquino (“John”; four-string baritone ukulele), Nolet Quiason (“Paul”; four-string tenor and bass ukulele), Alastar McNeil (“George”; four- and eight-string tenor ukulele) and Dennis Muth (“Ringo”; cajon and percussion) — started as a standard Beatles tribute group. The decision to change instruments sets them apart from other Beatles tribute groups. Their debut album also shows that acoustic ukulele work quite well playing rock music.

Although it’s natural to be skeptical of tribute projects that by definition build on someone else’s success, Beat-Lele deserves respect. The arrangements are remarkably close to the originals, and Beat-Lele’s members play them with authority. When they deviate from the original — the intro to “A Hard Day’s Night,” for example — the changes fit the new guitarless sound. Muth’s work on cajon (widely known as a “percussion box”) takes Ringo’s iconic percussion work and presents it in a style that complements the sound of the various ukulele.

Of the four voices, McNeil comes closest. He does a nice “George” on three Harrison compositions, but Beat-Lele isn’t about being celebrity sound-alikes. The thing here is their success in showing how well Beatles songs can work when played on a different set of instruments.

On Saturday the band holds a CD release party at Gordon Biersch, with guests Jon Yamasato and Stef Mariani (6- 10 p.m. at Aloha Tower Marketplace; free admission); and on Wednesday, Beat-Lele appears as part of Roy Sakuma’s Wildest Show in Town at the Honolulu Zoo (6-7 p.m.; $5). Later this month Beat-Lele travels to England to perform as part of International Beatle Week; that’s a first for a group from Hawaii.

Visit beat-lele.com.