Jake Shimabukuro played a solo set at the Highline Ballroom in New York early in 2008 and stirred it up with the resonant warmth of his four-string ukulele, conjuring musical details worthy of an orchestra. Right then, I vowed to hear him again on Toast of the Nation.
Shimabukuro is a genre-demolishing artist who plays jazz, blues, funk, classical, bluegrass, folk, flamenco and rock. It's all with the mission of showing everyone that the ukulele is capable of much more than just traditional Hawaiian music. On Nov. 9, Shimabukuro closed the 2008 San Francisco Jazz Festival with another solo concert, presented here for the first time.
Copyright 2009 WBGO
