In the zone with Jake Shimabukuro, the Jimi Hendrix of ukulele, coming to Morristown on Oct. 26

Jake Shimabukuro. Photo by Kayoko Yamamoto
Jake Shimabukuro. Photo by Kayoko Yamamoto
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When ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro began touring, wags in the front rows shouted requests for Tiny Tim’s Tiptoe Through the Tulips and Don Ho’s Tiny Bubbles.

A dozen years later, they’re more likely to ask for Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody or Bach’s Two-Part Invention No.4 in D minor.

“I’ve always wanted to push the envelope of the instrument,” says Shimabukuro.

On Thursday, Oct. 26, 2017, he’ll show Morristown’s Mayo Performing Arts Center why artists from Jimmy Buffet to Bette Midler to Yo-Yo Ma clamor to perform with him, before fans who include Queen Elizabeth II.

Not bad for a kid who grew up strumming simple island tunes, like every other grade-schooler in Hawaii.

Jake Shimabukuro. Photo by Coleman Saunders.
Jake Shimabukuro. Photo by Coleman Saunders.

Shimabukuro figured he would become a teacher. But an iconic guitar lick changed everything. When a high school pal shredded the opening riff from Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love on his guitar, Shimabukuro figured it out at home on his uke.

“I went back to school and played that for my friend,” recounts Shimabukuro, 40. “And he was like, ‘Wow! You’re not supposed to be able play that on the ukulele!'”

Then he mastered Extreme’s hit, More Than Words. Friends freaked out. And a light bulb went off: Wouldn’t it be cool to perform songs not widely associated with his little four-stringed instrument?

Almost anything, he discovered, was fair game.

“What I tell people is, if you can hum the song, you should be able to play it.”

Shimabukuro’s big break came in 2005, when a grainy video of him playing George Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps in Central Park near Strawberry Fields, for a public access TV show called Ukulele Disco, became a sensation on a new thing called YouTube.

A star is born: Jake Shimabukuro makes his ukulele gently weep 

He had no idea what YouTube was. Friends just started calling from the mainland.

Tour invitations quickly followed.  Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Jimmy Buffet. Bette Midler asked Shimabukuro to accompany her at a gig in the U.K.

“And then she told me, ‘Oh by the way, we’re going to be playing for the royal family,'” he said.

They played The Beatles’ In My Life. The Queen expressed her admiration to Shimabukuro afterward. Another big moment for him was playing While My Guitar Gently Weeps for Harrison’s widow, Olivia.

ARTHUR GODFREY TO MICHAEL JORDAN

Shimabukuro wasn’t the first person to make a splash on ukulele. The initial craze came in the Roaring Twenties. Early TV star Arthur Godfrey sparked a resurgence in the 1950s.

Grace VanderWaal. Photo: Grace VanderWaal.com
Grace VanderWaal. Photo: Grace VanderWaal.com

Now, thanks to stars like Shimabukuro, Taylor Swift, Dave Matthews and Eddie Vedder, the ukulele is riding a global wave. Twelve-year-old Grace VanderWaal won America’s Got Talent last year singing with her uke. Clubs have sprouted everywhere. (Members of the Morristown Uke Jam will play outside MPAC prior to Shimabkuro’s show weather-permitting.)

Shimabukuro thinks everyone’s catching on for the same reasons he got hooked at age 4. 

“The ukulele is so tiny, and I remember being able to hold it, and I just felt comfortable,” he says. “It’s so easy to get started, because the strings are made of nylon, so they’re a lot softer than the steel strings of a guitar.”

Members of the Morristown Uke Jam jam on the Green, October 2017. Photo courtesy of MUJ
Members of the Morristown Uke Jam jam on the Green, October 2017. Photo courtesy of MUJ

Yet Shimabukuro says the ukulele  (pronounced ew-ku-ley-lee in Hawaii) is deceptively powerful. He’s used it to spread his drug-free message to young people. For people who are suffering, he says, ukes can spark joy and “transform you from the inside out.”

Above all, he says, the ukulele is a vessel.

Headliner Kimo Hussey, right, of Hawaii, at the NJ Uke Fest jam session on the Morristown Green, Aug. 27, 2017. Photo by Bill Lescohier
Ukulele star Kimo Hussey, right, at the NJ Uke Fest jam session on the Morristown Green, Aug. 27, 2017. Photo by Bill Lescohier

“If you want everybody to feel happy through playing a song or something, then you need to take that emotion and you need to put it inside of you first before you play the song. If you want the piece to be thought-provoking and you want them to feel something deeper, than you need to become that, and then play.”

He tells young kids:

“Have fun. You know how to have fun and be happy. That’s an emotion that you know well and you can do.”

In his youth, Shimabukuro admired fellow Hawaiians Eddie Kamae and “Uncle Kimo” Hussey, whose repertoire included traditional and popular songs.

Later, his influences expanded to include two famous non-musicians: Bruce Lee and Michael Jordan.

Lee became the godfather of mixed martial arts by embracing the best qualities of  individual genres, Shimabukuro explains. He’s adopted that approach for music.

ECLECTIC MASTER: Bruce Lee statue in Hong Kong. Photo: Johnson Lau
ECLECTIC MASTER: Bruce Lee statue in Hong Kong. Photo: Johnson Lau

“I’ve always been very open to anything, from death metal to rap music to contemporary classical music and traditional classical, and rock and roll, blues. Just anything that I could get my get my hands on and my ears on,” he says.

Jordan’s incredible focus under pressure mesmerized Shimabukuro. The revelation came during a big game, when the Bulls superstar seemed to score at will.

“I used to think ‘being in the zone’ meant to just block everything out,” says Shimabukuro.  “And that’s when I realized being in the zone is not about blocking everything out. It’s about taking everything in.”

That’s what Jordan did.

IN THE ZONE: Michael Jordan at Boston Garden, 1987. Photo: Steve Lipofsky, www.Basketballphoto.com
IN THE ZONE: Michael Jordan at Boston Garden, 1987. Photo: Steve Lipofsky, www.Basketballphoto.com

“He could feel the energy from the crowd, from the fans, because they were going nuts. He was just feeding off that energy. He knew where every single one of his teammates were. He knew where every single one of his opponents were on the court. He knew what the score was, how much time was up, and the shot clock. He knew everything that was happening, what his teammates were yelling, what the coaches were yelling… That’s when I realized like that’s how I have to be.”

That’s what Shimabukuro and his trio will shoot for in Morristown, with a mix of original and island songs, and Beatles and Leonard Cohen and New Order and Queen and Zombies, and some surprises.

“Every once in a while, there’s those nights where everything just kind of comes together and you walk away feeling like, ‘Wow, that was amazing, I don’t even know what happened, but gosh that just felt incredible!'” Shimabukuro says.

“You know the whole experience was just magical. And that’s the part of music and art that just transcends people, and makes such a huge impact.”

Jake Shimabukuro at the Mayo Performing Arts Center, 8 pm, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2017. Tickets: $29-$59. At 100 South St., Morristown, 973-539-8008.

Jake Shimabukuro. Photo by Coleman Saunders.
Jake Shimabukuro. Photo by Coleman Saunders.

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