Interview with Kazusa Flanagan
June 11, 2009Interview with Kazusa Flannagan March 2009
Re: Jake Shimabukuro
Jake Shimabukuro has been committed to the Music is Good Medicine program since 2000. The following is an interview with Jake’s Manager and friend, Kazusa Flannagan, on Jake’s past involvement and commitment to MIGM.
Through the many MIGM performances with the wide range of audiences, what event do you recall that stuck out the most?
Kaz: We had a Music is Good Medicine program at a high school set up on a football field. Jake was performing with a group called Colón. A fight broke out, halting the concert. Guy Cruz yelled out “never mind beef”…and the concert carried on ending peacefully. There were so many school performances with so many different experiences. Colón did a MIGM program at Molokai High School’s gym. Half way through the concert, the power went out shutting down the sound system. True to the spirit of Jake and Colón, the concert carried on through the outage.
The first time we met, you just took the position as Jake’s Manager. It was at a MIGM performance at Manoa Elementary School in 2000. What was your first impression of the MIGM program when you saw the performance?
Kaz: There were so many local schools that we went to during the early days of MIGM. All of them were fun and exciting. Much of the school performances in the early days were by Colón. When Colón disbanded, Jake continued with the MIGM program with solo performances and becoming the spokes person for MIGM.
MIGM concerts had many type of audiences and venues including schools, senior centers, health and wellness fairs, monthly lunch hour performances at Tamarind Park, and so on....how do you feel the MIGM messages and performances by Jake were received by the audiences…what were their reactions?
Kaz: When MIGM was brought to senior centers, many of the seniors would wait for a chance to talk with Jake. They would talk about their families and themselves playing the ukulele and just want to chit chat with him. Jake performed once in Harlem, New York at a YMCA. I was corresponding with a person who volunteered there, a Japanese woman from Japan who moved to New York. When we confirmed a concert performance in New York, I called the volunteer at the Y and scheduled a performance there. The YMCA had very little visitors who came to perform. We really didn’t know what to expect. Jake opened his visit explaining to the children what the ukulele was , many of them didn’t know about Hawaii or about the ukulele. The kids there got up and started dancing hip-hop to Jake’s ukulele playing. That was really a first for us.
Were there other MIGM performances during National Tours?
Kaz: Jake visited a juvenile detention facility in California. We performed as part of a community outreach program and were a bit worried - really didn’t know what to expect. I sensed that Jakes was a little nervous at the facility with an audience of troubled teenagers. We went into the room pretending he wasn’t nervous and opened with a Big “Aloha”. All the kids there were looking in all different directions, ignoring and not acknowledging him. Jake maintained his calmness and started talking about Hawaii and the ukulele. He started playing his ukulele and the kids started glancing at him. After the performance, most of the kids stayed back and asked him for his autograph on these little post its that they had. It was pretty amazing how at first they were turned off by his “Aloha” opening but yet how he connected with them through his spoken words and his music.
In Jake’s MIGM venues for kids and in schools, Jake would do a lot of talking about his life growing up as a child, of sometimes being lost, and having the ukulele to keep him focused. How does Jake keep the young audience’s attention? He is a one-man performer who plays this tiny instrument and doesn’t sing.
Kaz: Once Jake gets rolling, like magic, he keeps his audience’s trapped. When he talks to the crowd, he’s like talking with you on a personal level. He doesn’t speak at the audience, but with them. Jake would do hand stands and walk on his hands and do whatever it takes to keep the attention on him. He adjusts to his audiences and captures there curiosity. Jake’s heart goes into every performance. He sometimes would pick with his teeth and push the ukulele strumming to lightning fast speeds. He is a living example of what Music is Good Medicine is all about. His passion for music and performing has kept him focused in life and focused on living a healthy lifestyle. Jake wants to share his passion with everyone.