Pittsburgh Tribune

Jake sat down with the Pittsburgh Tribune to conduct a in depth interview. Jake talks about his passion for the ukulele and his music.

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Jake Performs Michael Jackson's Thriller - FOX Detroit.com

Check out Jake perform Thriller on the FOX Detroit TV news station.

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Pittsburgh Tribune Review

"Jake Shimabukuro has found his love of jazz has one string attached.

"I don't consider myself a jazz musician," he says of his work in the genre that has steered his music away from the folk music of his heritage. "I just don't have the vocabulary for that."

But that has not stopped him from exploring jazz, pop and even classical music on his ukulele, a skill he will show off Friday in the North Side."
- Bob Karlovits

Pacific Citizen

"Musician Jake Shimabukuro plucked his first ukulele string by age of 4 thanks to his first unofficial instructor: his mother. At about the age of 7, the Japanese American ukulele player honed his talent at the island's well-known Roy Sakuma Ukulele Studio. He has been plucking and strumming ever since, collaborating on projects for artists like Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Yo-Yo Ma, and Ziggy Marley, among others. He has now taken over Music is Good Medicine, a foundation dedicated to inspiring children to follow their dreams."
- Nalea J. Ko

Oakland Jazz Music Examiner

"Suffice it to say, the 32-year-old does a lot more with the instrument than you might imagine if all you know of the uke is Tiny Tim. Shimabukuro's sound incorporates elements of jazz, country and flamenco; his repertoire, comprised primarily of originals, touches on everything from Schubert and Erroll Garner to Led Zeppelin and the Beatles."
- Brian McCoy

SF Music Examiner

"This guy emits positive energy even through his dozens of youtube videos, I can't wait to actually be in his presense. If his last album is any indication, Davies Hall is in for quite a ride Wednesday night where he will be playing as part of the SFJazz Festival's season. Jake's latest album release is entirely live.  Every track reveals a different side of the ukulele: soft and sensitive at times, other times cheery and playful, occasionally dramatic, and, once in a while, hard and aggressive."
- Jamie Freedman

All Music.com

"Whenever virtuosic players of exotic instruments come along, they're called the Jimi Hendrix of the (blank). Béla Fleck was the Jimi Hendrix of the banjo and more recently, Jake Shimabukuro has been hailed as the Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele. Shimabukuro's style is nothing like that of Hendrix, but what's a lazy critic to do? Shimabukuro is a monster musician and boldly takes the ukulele where no ukulele has ever gone before, dazzling listeners with his blinding speed, melodic invention, and open-ended improvisations of remarkable virtuosity."
- J. Poet

LexGo.com

Once you got past the sheer novelty of Jake Shimabukuro's worldly musical vision for an instrument as stylistically and culturally maligned as the ukulele, you discovered some delightful contrasts. At this taping of WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour, where he was the lone guest, the Hawaii native, 32, approached the instrument almost as a classical utensil, from the studied flamenco design of Let's Dance to the light-as-air compositional fabric of Piano Forte.

Jazz Times

"While his cover material allows for the instrument's possibilities to be reconsidered, where Shimabukuro makes his most positive mark is in his own compositions, where he can chart new directions. "Me & Shirley T" ("about being a kid and drinking one too many Shirley Temples") is a brisk, flamenco-like study in obliterating rhythmic walls while the closing "Blue Roses Falling," a quiet, airy meditation, is akin to a bold John Fahey epic. Like Bela Fleck on the banjo, Jake Shimabukuro is making something up as he goes along-not too many can say that anymore."
- Jeff Tamarkin

Lexington Herald Leader

"Tours with such disparate artists as Béla Fleck and Jimmy Buffett, along with appearances on Late Night With Conan O'Brien since 2005, have provided Shimabukuro with some strong allies. But it has been through incessant touring and a series of six solo studio albums that word of his ukulele music has spread."
- Walter Tunis

This article was also reprinted in the Philadelphia Inquirer.