Jake Shimabukuro
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SFJAZZ DIALOGUES
"Music That Breaks Barriers Down": A Conversation with Jake Shimabukuro
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This week on Fridays Live, SFJAZZ presents “the Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele,” Jake Shimabukuro. Over the past two decades, he's become a one-man army advancing the ukulele cause, turning the four-string axe into a supremely pliable musical vehicle, capable of generating everything from power chord rock to sensuously swinging jazz. Strumming with a hummingbird blur, he coaxes an impossibly big sound out of the little instrument, playing an intoxicating mix of pop tunes, American Songbook standards and lilting originals.
Like Béla Fleck on the banjo, Jake Shimabukuro is making something up as he goes along — not too many can say that anymore.
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ABOUT JAKE SHIMABUKURO
Widely recognized as “the Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele,” Jake Shimabukuro has created an international fanbase as a sensational performer whose concerts leave audiences awed, dazzled and delighted. Over the past two decades, he's become a one-man army advancing the ukulele cause, turning the four-string axe into a supremely pliable musical vehicle, capable of generating everything from power chord rock to sensuously swinging jazz. Strumming with a hummingbird blur, he coaxes an impossibly big sound out of the little instrument, playing an intoxicating mix of pop tunes, American Songbook standards and lilting originals.
Shimabukuro has released a staggering 25 albums for the global and Japanese markets since his 2002 debut Sunday Morning, including his 2006 breakout U.S. hit Gently Weeps and his 2012 Alan Parsons-produced showstopper, Grand Ukulele.
His latest, Jake & Friends, is easily his most audacious statement of versatility, pairing his ebullient virtuosity with an impressive roster of guests including Willie Nelson, Bette Midler, Kenny Loggins, Ziggy Marley, and Jimmy Buffett, among others.
It's a bravura recording that leaves no doubt why fellow string renegades such as banjo star Béla Fleck, fiddle wizard Darol Anger and cello virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma embrace Shimabukuro as one of their own.