Jake S in Coastal Living Magazine
Posted: August 4, 2007 11:48 am
What a surprise! I picked up the July-August Coastal Living magazine, since I live on the coast, and lo and behold, there's a short interview with Jake Shimabukuro on the back page!
Flashing a smile, Jake Shimabukuro (she-ma-BOO-koo-row) plugs his ukulele into an amplifier and unleashes a screaming solo worthy of Jimi Hendrix -- followed maybe by a delicate rendition of Schubert's "Ave Maria." The verstility of this Japanese-American musician doesn't stop there: He ran a marathon in his native Honolulu last fall, a month after turning 30.
first string: "I was 4. My mom played the ukulele, and she played a lot. That's basically how I learned. Only traditional Hawaiian music. That's what I started out with. As I got older, I got into listening to jazz and blues and rock."
obsession: "[The ukulele] was kind of my escape. ... When I was growing up, my parents would sometimes have to take it away from me so I would go to bed."
stylistically speaking: "My attachment is to the song. When I was a kid, I didn't know there was blues or jazz or rock or heavy metal. It was all just music."
high notes: "There are things that I play now that I didn't think would be possible for the instrument. ... Because of its limited range, you have to increase your range as a player and learn how to express different timbres, different tone colors, and different voices with the instrument."
no vocals: "I'm a terrible singer. Horrible. I don't even sound good in the shower."
Flashing a smile, Jake Shimabukuro (she-ma-BOO-koo-row) plugs his ukulele into an amplifier and unleashes a screaming solo worthy of Jimi Hendrix -- followed maybe by a delicate rendition of Schubert's "Ave Maria." The verstility of this Japanese-American musician doesn't stop there: He ran a marathon in his native Honolulu last fall, a month after turning 30.
first string: "I was 4. My mom played the ukulele, and she played a lot. That's basically how I learned. Only traditional Hawaiian music. That's what I started out with. As I got older, I got into listening to jazz and blues and rock."
obsession: "[The ukulele] was kind of my escape. ... When I was growing up, my parents would sometimes have to take it away from me so I would go to bed."
stylistically speaking: "My attachment is to the song. When I was a kid, I didn't know there was blues or jazz or rock or heavy metal. It was all just music."
high notes: "There are things that I play now that I didn't think would be possible for the instrument. ... Because of its limited range, you have to increase your range as a player and learn how to express different timbres, different tone colors, and different voices with the instrument."
no vocals: "I'm a terrible singer. Horrible. I don't even sound good in the shower."
