Tapia's life was documented in the 2004 film "To You Sweetheart, Aloha." With his wife and daughter deceased, the musician's latest round in the spotlight has been bittersweet.

"To tell you the truth I don't even know how I'm living because I didn't have an easy life," Tapia said in a press release.

But blues are brushed aside when he takes his 'ukulele in hand, and still deftly works through jazzy renditions of hapa-haole classics such as "My Little Grass Shack at Kealakekua, Hawai'i" and "Manuela Boy" (whom Tapia claims to have known).

Tapia is also a great storyteller, and his witty reminiscences of Hawai'i almost outshine the music. To hear him in a space with acoustics as good as those found at rRed Elephant will be a rare treat. And as he approaches his centennial, he's still the snappiest dresser ever to grace a Honolulu stage.