Jake Shimabukuro is a ukulele master from Honolulu, Hawaii. Though Shimabukuro has been serious about ukulele from a young age, it was a viral video he made in 2006 that launched him into the spotlight as a ukulele master.
Shimabukuro has come to the KNKX studios three times since 2011. During his first visit, Shimabukuro played tracks from his album, Peace Love Ukulele, explored his longtime love of ukulele, and explained how a video for local TV skyrocketed his career.
The compact, four-stringed ukulele was brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants in the late 1800s. Now, it's considered a birthright in the state. Shimabukuro told us that most Hawaiian kids grow up playing the uke. He learned from his mom at age 4.
"I played a lot of traditional Hawaiian music...that's what I played all the time, and I absolutely loved it. And it's amazing, because with those three simple chords, you can play about 300 traditional Hawaiian tunes. So, with just those three chords, it kept me busy, you know, for a long time," he said.
Shimabukuro's interest in music became more serious in his teens when a friend gave him a video tape of a Van Halen rock concert, complete with big hair, spandex, and Eddie Van Halen's wild guitar solos.
"I remember popping that tape in and I was just glued to the TV. I mean, I just could not take my eyes off that television set. And there was Eddie just shredding on the guitar, and they were running across the stage, stage diving, and I just looked at that, and I thought to myself, 'That's what an ukulele concert should be like,'" Shimabukuro said.
The ukulele player later wrote a song inspired by that tape called "Bring Your Adz." The song puts a Hawaiian twist on Van Halen's energy and freneticism.
"An adz is an ancient cutting tool that the Hawaiians would use to make their canoes and it looks like a small axe. And in rock and roll, they refer to their guitars as their 'ax'. So they'll say, 'Hey, bring your ax to the gig.' And it means, bring your guitar. I wanted to change it a bit, you know, and make it a little bit more Hawaiian ukulele-ish," Shimabukuro said.
It was another connection to rock and roll that brought Shimabukuro international fame while touring through New York City in 2006. Shimabukuro was videotaped playing a Beatles song in Central Park for a local TV show called "Ukulele Disco." They shared the video on what was then a new internet site called YouTube.
"I was working on my favorite George Harrison piece, and it was a song called 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps.' So I played it for the show, and it aired on TV, and then I went back home to Hawaii," he said.
A month later, the video had several million views and climbing. The 4-minute viral clip led Shimabukuro to rub shoulders with Bela Fleck, Victor Wooten, Jimmy Buffet, among others, and helped him establish himself as an international ukulele sensation. Today, he's regarded as one of the most skillful and creative players on the instrument.
Songs Heard in this Episode:
- "143 (Kelly's Song)"
- "Bring your Adz"
- "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
