Jake Shimabukuro

'Jake is taking the instrument to a place that I can't see anybody else catching up with him.' - Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam)

When Jake last played Bluesfest in 2008 the festival was buzzing with excitement about the young Hawaiian guy shredding it on the ukulele.

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.

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.

Duration: 1hr 45mins

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