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Over the past century, the ukulele—that perennially happy-sounding
instrument from Hawaii—has risen to prominence and fallen
out of popularity several times. Yet
it always finds a newly enthusiastic
audience once again. An initial ukulele
craze was sparked in 1915 when
the instrument made an appearance
at the Panama Pacific International
Exposition in San Francisco. A resurgence
happened in the 1950s when
the host of the
Arthur Godfrey and
His Friends variety show regularly
strummed his Maccaferri Islander for
television audiences and contributed
to a spike in sales of the instrument.
The ukulele waned in popularity
again from the 1970s onward, but
in 2006 it enjoyed another comeback,
thanks to a YouTube video by
Hawaiian-born uke phenom Jake
Shimabukuro.
The video, “Ukulele weeps by
Jake Shimabukuro,” had nearly
seven million hits as of press time,
and it features Shimabukuro playing
an incredible interpretation of the
Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently
Weeps” in the Strawberry Fields
memorial section of New York’s
Central Park (an area of the park
near where John Lennon was assassinated).
It was filmed in a single take
and originally aired on the cable
access show
Midnight Ukulele Disco.
Shimabukuro’s fame spread
rapidly. He was soon featured on
Late Night with Conan O’Brien,
and some began calling him the
Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele. Now
34, Shimabukuro is one of the
world’s greatest ukulele virtuosos,
with an awe-inspiring technique
that is especially apparent on his
unaccompanied arrangements and
excursions. And his repertoire is
remarkably wide-reaching, too: He’s
equally comfortable playing everything
from pop to classical and
reggae, and he’s done so alongside
such notables as Yo-Yo Ma, Jimmy
Buffet, and Ziggy Marley.
Peace Love Ukulele,
Shimabukuro’s new album, features
10 tracks full of impressive playing.
But the two biggest highlights are the
stirring original, “Go for Broke”—a
tribute to World War II veterans—
and an orchestral-like solo rendition
of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
We chatted with Shimabukuro about
the new album, how he managed to
channel both Brian May and Freddie
Mercury with his diminutive little
axe, and how he’s transformed the
light and simple ukulele into a seriously
heavy instrument.
When did you start playing the uke?
Onstage, Shimabukuro keeps his uke
in tune with a Peterson StroboClip.
Photo by Sencame |
I first picked up the ukulele when I was about 4
years old. My mom introduced me to the instrument,
and I began by playing familiar Hawaiian
folk music. Growing up in Hawaii, it was natural
to play the ukulele—it was so easy to throw it
over my shoulder and play it at the park, on the
beach, and even in the car. In other words, it
made playing music possible everywhere, and
that’s a wonderful quality. I wouldn’t have been
able to do that with a guitar—which would’ve
taken a lot more effort to carry around—or a
violin, which is small but fragile and very sensitive
to different weather conditions. I also really
loved the sound of the ukulele—light, happy,
and childlike—qualities that still appeal to me.
When did you get serious about it?
When I was a teenager I started branching out,
listening to a little bit of everything—rock ’n’
roll, jazz, classical, and blues—and I would try to
mimic it all on the ukulele. That’s what led me
to developing a different technique and approach
to the instrument altogether. In the beginning, it
was all by ear. But when I got into high school, I
started getting some formal music training, learning
about sight reading, theory, and composition.
How important was that training to
your musicianship?
It has played a really huge role in my musical
life. While the training helped me better understand
what I was doing on the instrument, it
made me not just a stronger ukulele player but
a complete musician. And I’m still always trying
to expand and challenge myself by discovering
new things about music. The great thing about it
is that, the more you learn, the more you realize
how little you know. That’s the beauty of it—you
can never know everything you want to know
about music in a lifetime.