Download List of Press Quotes
Honolulu Advertiser
"Shimabukuro's passion for music and desire to inspire others also led to the creation of The Music is Medicine program, designed to inspire young people to pursue their passions and to work hard in developing their talents and skills."
"It's an honor and responsibility to share the music you hear in your heart with anyone who wants to listen," Shimabukuro said. "Music is the language of the future. Music communicates pure emotion. Music is good medicine.
- Mark Hayden
Vintage Guitar.com
"In his introduction to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," Shimabukuro explains how a video of him playing the George Harrison classic in Central Park, for New York's Midnight Ukulele Disco, "changed my life." That's an understatement. With more than a million views on youtube and other Internet sites, it catapulted him to the top of Billboard's World Music chart and to stages playing with Bela Fleck, Jimmy Buffett, and Tommy Emmanuel."
-Vintage Guitar
Live Ukulele.com
"Jake Shimabukuro's new "Live" album has just become my one of my favorites. It is well known that Jake puts on a heck of a show, and that feeling was captured very well on this CD. The 17 songs presented on this album were recorded in different venues from Japan to New York by a very talented crew. The quality of sound that was coaxed from a Fishman Matrix pickup blew me away. You might think that for doing a live album Jake would have chosen to use a mic, but you can hear the nuances of the pickup in every song - well done!"
- Live Ukulele.com
San Diego News Network
"His fingers flutter like a bird. His hands torture the strings like a heavy-metal guitar player. And he ends a song with a tender pluck, like a lover kissing his beloved.
Listening to him play, you would never know it. His music pushes the genre of Hawaiian music, with instrumentation that rivals the best of jazz, blues, folk, pop and even Japanese koto music."
- Helen Kaiao Chang
The Christian Science Monitor
"If any stringed instrument has rarely transcended its identity as a kitschy toy, or Hawaiian tourism icon, it's the ukulele. So along comes Hawaiian ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro. His new album "Live" (Hitchhike Records) shiningly reconfigures the ukelele's history. Through the development of a percussive and lyrical technique, Shimabukuro covers Michael Jackson's "Thriller," J.S. Bach's "Two Part Invention in D Minor," and a flamenco-charged version of George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." This well-recorded potpourri of live concert solo performances possesses humor, rocking and danceable rhythms, and bouncy energy."
Indy Week.com
"The American mainland has long regarded the ukulele as a novelty (Thanks a lot, Tiny Tim), if not an afterthought for kitchen-sink indie rock orchestras (Sup, Beirut?). First flicking the four-string at the ripe age of 4, Honolulu's Jake Shimabukuro has developed a virtuosity that's garnered Hendrix comparisons by reimagining his instrument's abilities and image. To wit, his instrumental cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" has a few million YouTube hits. Along with tunes from Cyndi Lauper, Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin and Bach, he covers a couple other Beatles hits. But it's his tasteful, restrained originals that speak to his uke's eloquence."
-Spencer Griffi
The Village Voice
"Who among us has not marveled in amazement at this ukulele virtuoso's solo, al fresco rendition of George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on Youtube? On his recent Live, Hawaii-born Shimabukuro plays the bejeezus out of a Bach two-part invention, Michael Jackson/Rod Temperton's "Thriller," a Japanese koto tune, and various originals delivered with a jazz-meets-flamenco-meets-slack-key lilt."
- Richard Gehr
The News Observer
"For most people, the ukulele probably calls to mind the casual strumming of Arthur Godfrey, or Tiny Tim tip-toeing through the tulips.
But Jake Shimabukuro is a uke player of a different sort. Some call him the "Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele." You could think of him as a Hawaiian version of Captain Kirk, an intrepid explorer for whom the stage is Starship Enterprise. When Shimabukuro steps aboard, he takes the ukulele where it's never been before."
- Jack Bernhardt
Democrat and Chronicle
"JAKE SHIMABUKURO: LIVE. Many have raved about this unique ukulele player since he took last year's Rochester International Jazz Festival by storm. Hearing this just-released live disc, I understand the enthusiasm and regret all the more that I missed him. I won't make the same mistake this June. Live features tasty originals, his angelic interpretations of Bach and of Japanese traditional songs, a sophisticated tribute to legendary jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, and, of course, his star-making turn on George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." He's reinvented the instrument, which is the peak of what you can ask of an artist. - Jack Garner."
- Jack Garner
The Post and Courier
"The guy in the video, Jake Shimabukuro, is a talented musician who plays the ukulele like Eddie Van Halen plays electric guitar.
On "Live," his new CD that collects 16 live performances from both the U.S. and Japan, Shimabukuro wields his ukulele magic on everything from Bach composition to Michael Jackson's "Thriller," which, incidentally, isn't as bad as it might sound."
