Jake Shimabukuro Returns to Raleigh

Jan. 13, 2011 - PRLog -- If it weren’t for Jake Shimabukuro, Patricia Anderson, and PineCone, Makanani and Keli'i Kaneshiro might not have gotten married, because they might not have met.

When Patricia Anderson moved to Raleigh from Hawai’i in 2004 to be near her two daughters and her granddaughter, she had no idea that she would end up starting a Hawai’i club on the east coast. But in 2006, Anderson realized she was homesick for the Islands, and then she saw an article about Hawaiian ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro coming to perform in Raleigh.

“I thought, ‘There will be other people from Hawai’i there!’” Anderson recalls. She contacted PineCone, the organization that was presenting Shimabukuro, and received permission to leave a sign-up sheet for a Hawai’i Club on the promotional table.

“There were a number of people from Hawai’i at the concert - they were easy to pick out with their aloha shirts over their sweaters and sweat shirts! They were crazy about Jake, yelling, ‘Aloha and ‘hanahou,’ which means more!” About 10 people put their address and phone numbers on the Hawai’i club list, and a few weeks later they got together for a potluck. Anderson, her daughter and a friend who is also from Hawai’i had called people to invite them to the potluck and to ask those people to spread the word and the invitation as well, and in May 2006, 45 people got together for the Hawai’i club’s inaugural potluck.

Today, Ka Pu’uwai ‘O Hawai’i, which literally translated means “Heart of Hawai’i” or “Hawaiian Heart,” has more than 60 active members and 250 people on their e-mail list. The club holds potluck parties about seven times a year:  Lei Day (May Day), a lu'au in September and a big Mele Kalikimaka (Christmas) party in December are the group’s big events, and they organize smaller gatherings as well. The organization is an official 501(c)3 nonprofit with a mission is to perpetuate, support and share Hawaiian culture. Learn more at http://www.hawaiiclubnc.org.
     
The Kaneshiros met through Ka Pu’uwai ‘O Hawai’i. One of the group’s members saw Keli'i at a gym and invited him to an event, where he met Makanani (whose name in Hawaiian means “beautiful eyes”). The rest, as they say, is history – the couple got married in Hawai’i during the summer of 2010, and Anderson, her daughter Karen, and her granddaughters, ages 7 and 3, were in Hawai’i to celebrate with them.

Anderson and other members of Ka Pu’uwai ‘O Hawai’i will also be in attendance at Shimabukuro’s next Raleigh show, which is coming up on Saturday, Feb. 12 in Fletcher Theater at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts. This will be the third time PineCone has presented Shimabukuro. Both prior concerts have sold out, and the upcoming show has limited seats remaining!

Shimabukuro started the new year with a new album release on Hitchhike Records titled Peace Love Ukulele. Known for his exciting, innovative playing and composing with the ukulele, Shimabukuro spoke at the prestigious TED Talks Conference in February of last year. With his lightning-fast fingers and revolutionary playing techniques, Shimabukuro views the ukulele as an "untapped source of music with unlimited potential." His virtuosity defies label or category. Covering a wide range of songs, from Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" to Michael Jackson's "Thriller," in addition to playing his own spellbinding original pieces, he consistently stretches the boundaries of what people expect from the ukulele. Evolving from the heavily amplified riffs that earned him the reputation as "Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele," now Shimabukuro also masterfully performs songs showcasing the natural acoustic sound of his instrument.

Though Shimabukuro has been playing ukulele since the age of 4, he began his music career in earnest performing at local Honolulu venues and coffee shops. "I loved just playing those little places, and I was happy with it at the time," he remembers. "But when Sony Music Japan showed interest in signing me, I think it made me take my music seriously as a career." Although several well-received solo releases helped the musician earn some fame on the island, his career really skyrocketed beginning with a TV appearance in New York, where the producers of a local TV show called "Ukulele Disco" asked him to play a cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" in Central Park. It was an exhilarating performance - and one that quickly went viral, as the nearly seven million page views it has received on YouTube can attest. "It was supposed to air once, but it somehow ended up on YouTube - which had just started out at the time - and suddenly people started asking about the Asian guy who plays the ukulele," Shimabukuro says.

The clip certainly opened the world’s eyes to the ukulele, and it broadened Shimabukuro’s audience. In the years since that clip aired, Shimabukuro has performed with the likes of Jimmy Buffett, Bela Fleck, Bette Midler, Yo-Yo Ma, Cyndi Lauper and Ziggy Marley. He’s played on shows like The Late Show with Conan O’Brien, The Today Show and Last Call with Carson Daly, as well as NPR’s Morning Edition and World Café. Live, he’s landed slots on the Monterey and Playboy Jazz Festivals, performed at the Google campus and the influential TED conference, and played in front of the Queen of England at a benefit show (alongside Bette Midler). And next month, fans can see Shimabukuro performing in a scene in the new Adam Sandler movie Just Go with It.

As his stature grows in the music world, Shimabukuro continues to impress and stretch boundaries with each new release. While all the tracks on Peace Love Ukulele were arranged as solo ukulele pieces, Shimabukuro utilizes a band for the majority of the songs, adding some orchestral touches on songs like “Five Dollars Unleaded” and marching drums on “Go for Broke,” a stirring tribute to Japanese American soldiers in World War II. “So many of those soldiers were based in Hawaii,” he says. “I wanted to show my appreciation for what they did – as a Japanese American, I have a better life today because of the sacrifices they made. ‘Go for broke’ was their motto, which means to risk everything on one great effort to win big.”

The new album also showcases Shimabukuro’s lightning-fast skills and dexterity with the ukulele (“Bring Your Adz”), some humor (“143 (Kelly’s Song),” a title based around a pager code for “I love you”) and a couple of choice covers, including Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the only solo ukulele performance on the album.

As his career continues to blossom, Shimabukuro is also busy giving back to the island community, using the ukulele as his tool. He’s currently the head spokesperson for “Music is Good Medicine,” a living healthy community program that tours schools, hospitals and senior centers around Hawai’i. “I share my music with kids, and I tie in the message of living a healthy life and staying drug-free,” he says. “I’m trying to share something positive, and show how music helped me make good decisions in life. But it doesn’t have to be music – just something people can be passionate about.”

Despite his ongoing success, Shimabukuro remains humble and admittedly “awestruck” by how his love of the ukulele has propelled him to such great heights. For that, he gives full credit to the instrument he’s played with a passion since he was 4. “The ukulele is the instrument of peace,” he says. “And if everyone played one, the world would be a better place.”

PineCone presents Jake Shimabukuro as part of the Down Home Concert Series at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts. The show starts at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 12. Only limited tickets remain, so reserve your seats soon! Call PineCone's box office at 919-664-8302 for tickets, or visit http://www.ticketmaster.com. To learn about other PineCone concerts and events, visit http://www.pinecone.org.

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PineCone—the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music, is a private, nonprofit, charitable membership organization dedicated to preserving, presenting and promoting traditional music, dance and other folk performing arts.