Ukulele Maestro Jake Shimabukuro bringing his talents to Idaho Falls
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IDAHO FALLS — Winter still has a pretty good grip on eastern Idaho, but Jake Shimabukuro is bringing a dose of warm Hawaiian sunshine to the Colonial Theater in Idaho Falls on March 13.
A virtuoso ukulele player, Shimabukuro fuses rock, jazz, funk, and blues into a playing style that is wholly unique. His adventurous, groundbreaking musical approach has led many to call him “the Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele,” according to his official website.
Ukulele mastery has been a life-long pursuit for Shimabukuro ever since his childhood in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was drawn to pick up the instrument at the age four. His interest was sparked by watching his mother play.
“My mom was my first teacher,” Shimabukuro told EastIdahoNews.com. “She taught me a few chords and I was hooked and just kind of fell in love with the instrument.”
In 2001, Shimabukuro signed his first major record contract with Sony Music Japan and embarked on his solo career. He played many shows in Japan and Hawaii and even performed a few times on the U.S. mainland. But his career really began blowing up in 2005, when an online video of him playing The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” went viral.
“That really started an international touring career for me,” Shimabukuro said. “And here I am today, getting ready to come play in Idaho.”
Shimabukuro’s popularity has allowed him to produce a steady stream of music, appear on TV talk shows like “Good Morning America” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and play for audiences all across the globe, including Queen Elizabeth II of England.
But the best part of Shimabukuro’s career is simply playing the music.
“I love music,” Shimabukuro said. “I love playing and the coolest part is when you’re performing, the rush that you get from it and the joy and the connection with the audience … it’s almost addictive.”
He offers an apt metaphor for playing live.
“I tell people it’s like, for a surfer, it’s probably like catching that perfect wave and riding that perfect wave,” he said. “When I’m on stage, that’s how I feel. Just like being on that perfect wave.”
Shimabukuro enjoys sharing his “perfect wave”, the passion and joy he feels for playing, with his audiences.
“The bottom line is hopefully we can bring a little happiness to every town that we play in,” he said.
Along with the joy of music, Shimabukuro enjoys spreading positive messages to the younger members of his crowds.
“One of the things I always encourage the youth is to find something that they love,” he said. “Maybe you love cooking and you want to be a chef, or maybe you have a passion for education and you want to be a teacher. Whatever it is, I encourage them to practice and study and work hard at it.”
Audience members young and old can expect a mixture of cover songs and original material at the performance.
“Usually, I just kinda pick my favorite songs to play,” said Shimabukuro, describing his process for picking the songs for a live set. “When I first started touring, my set would be all covers, but over the years I’ve written some songs and now in the set, we do maybe three or four cover tunes and the rest are all originals.”
“There’s a song that I wrote called ‘Dragon’ that was inspired by Bruce Lee that’s been one of our more requested songs,” Shimabukuro continued. “There’s another one called ‘Blue Roses Falling’ that I wrote for a friend whose grandmother was very ill, and that’s been another one that really resonates with people.” He says that it’s been “pretty neat” to see songs he’s written stick with audiences, in some cases more than the covers he plays.
He also said he’s excited at the prospect of playing in Idaho.
“I always look forward to returning there,” he said. “I don’t know if you know it or not but there’s a large ukulele community in Idaho. They come out and support the show every year. They’re great and they bring their ukuleles to the show and that’s always fun.”
Shimabukuro suggests finding out ahead of time if the venue allows you the bring your ukuleles. But ukes or not, you can catch Jake Shimabukuro at the Colonial Theater Wednesday, March 13th at 8:00 p.m. It’s your chance to warm up your winter with a little Hawaiian musical sunshine!