Curiosity Expert: Jake Shimabukuro

Ukulele Virtuoso

• Jake Shimabukuro on YouTube
• Rolling Stone Live Video: Ukelele Virtuoso Covers Queen
• Follow Jake Shimabukuro on Facebook and Twitter!

"Forget everything you know about the ukulele…and go do a Google search. The first video that pops up won't be some grainy clup of Tiny Tim or George Formby but a performance by a hair-gelled 34-year old Hawaiian named Jake Shimabukuro." – Time magazine feature

It's rare for a young musician to earn comparisons to the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis. It's even harder to find an artist who has entirely redefined an instrument by his early thirties. But Jake Shimabukuro (she-ma-BOO-koo-row) has already accomplished these feats, and more, in a little over a decade of playing and recording music…on the ukulele.

Yes, the ukulele. In the hands of Shimabukuro, the traditional Hawaiian instrument of four strings and two octaves is stretched and molded into a complex and bold new musical force. On his new album Peace Love Ukulele (which recently debuted at #1 on the Billboard World Album Chart), Jake and his "uke" effortlessly (it seems) mix jazz, rock, classical, traditional Hawaiian music and folk, creating a sound that's both technically masterful and emotionally powerful…and utterly unique in the music world. No less than the New York Times recently noted his "buoyant musicianship" and "brisk proficiency," adding, "the innovation in his style stems from an embrace of restrictions: the ukulele has only four strings and a limited range. He compensates with an adaptable combination of rhythmic strumming, classical-style finger-picking and fredboard tapping."

For Shimabukuro, his life has always centered on the ukulele. He started playing the instrument at the age of 4, at the urging of his mother (who also played). "Everyone plays in Hawaii," he says. "But I just immediately fell in love with it." Showing talent, his parents enrolled him at Roy Sakuma's Ukulele Studios, the top uke school on the island.

Originally raised on Hawaiian music, Shimabukuro soon became entranced by the sounds of top 40 and rock. "I'd turn on the radio and just play my ukulele along to pop tunes," he remembers. "Since the ukulele was the only instrument I had, I had to figure out how to bring out melody and make it recognizable – which is hard to do because it's just a two-octave, four-string instrument with no sustain. And, I don't sing well, so I couldn't fake it with vocals."

Interestingly enough, his two biggest influences during his formative uke days weren't musicians. Sure, he looked to the likes of Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Yo-Yo Ma and Pat Metheny for inspiration, but Shimabukuro credits Bruce Lee and Bill Cosby for creating the foundation of his art. "Bruce Lee's philosophy on martial arts was that it was a form of human expression," he says. "And he didn't believe in any strict 'style.' He studied all forms and was open to everything. And Bill Cosby – here was a performer who just sat in a chair with a mic, and he'd entrance millions of people. I wanted to tap into that energy, of just performing alone and connecting with an audience."

Shimabukuro began his music career in earnest performing at local Honolulu venues and coffee shops. "I loved just playing those little places, and I was happy with it at the time," he remembers. "But when Sony Music Japan showed interest in signing me, I think it made me take my music seriously as a career." Although a few well-received solo releases helped the musician earn some fame on the island, his career really skyrocketed during a TV appearance in New York, where the producers of a local TV show called Ukulele Disco asked him to play a cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" in Central Park. It was an exhilarating performance– and one that quickly went viral, as the six-million-plus page views it's received on YouTube can attest. "It was supposed to air once, but it somehow ended up on YouTube, and suddenly everyone was asking about me and contacting my manager," says Jake.

The clip certainly broadened Jake's audience. In the years since that clip aired, Shimabukuro has performed with Levon Helm, Donovan Frankenreiter, Marcus Miller, Stanley Clarke, Les Paul, Jimmy Buffett, Bela Fleck, Bette Midler, Yo-Yo Ma, Cyndi Lauper and Ziggy Marley. He's played on shows like The Late Show with Conan O'Brien, The Today Show and Last Call with Carson Daly, and more recently was a featured artist on NPR's Weekend Edition. Live, he's landed slots on the Monterrey and Playboy Jazz Festivals, performed at the Google campus and the influential TED conference, and played in front of the Queen of England at a benefit show (alongside Bette Midler). Plus, Shimabukuro was recently seen in the new Adam Sandler movie Just Go with It, where he performs on screen.

As his stature grows in the music world, Shimabukuro continues to impress and stretch boundaries with each new release. While all the tracks on Peace Love Ukulele were arranged as solo uke pieces, he utilizes a band for the majority of the songs, adding some orchestral touches on songs like "Five Dollars Unleaded" and marching drums on "Go for Broke," a stirring tribute to Japanese American soldiers in World War II. "So many of those soldiers were based in Hawaii," he says. "I wanted to show appreciation for what they did – as a Japanese American, I’ve had a better life in America for what they did. 'Go for broke' was their motto."

It also showcases Jake's lightning-fast skills and dexterity with the ukulele ("Bring Your Adz"), some humor ("143 (Kelly’s Song)," a title based around a pager code for "I love you") and a couple of covers, including Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," the only solo ukulele performance on the album. "Covers on a ukulele are hard!" Jake says. "To actually come up with the arrangement, and have it sound respectful, that's quite a challenge. When I play a cover live, it's like magic! People are like 'Wait, how did you do that?'"

As his career continues to blossom, Shimabukuro is also busy giving back to the island community, and using the ukulele as his tool. He's currently the head spokesperson for "Music is Good Medicine," a living healthy community program that tours around Hawaii. "I share my music with kids, and I tie in a message of living a healthy life and staying drug-free," he says. "I’m trying to share something positive, and show how music helped me make good decisions. But it doesn't have to be music – just something people can be passionate about."

Despite the success, Jake remains humble and admittedly "awestruck" by how his love of the uke has propelled him to such great heights. For that, he gives full credit to the instrument he's played with a passion since he was 4. "The ukulele is the instrument of peace," he says. "And if everyone played one, the world would be a better place."