Early on, Mr. Shimabukuro flirted with distortion pedals and other plugged-in paraphernalia, but not for long.
WSJ: His Ukelele Is On Fire | Jake Shimabukuro | Cultural Conversation by Matthew Gurewitsch
Shimabukuro named his latest CD Gently Weeps because of his affection for George Harrison.
That has left Nago's Mr Shimabukuro with a lot to chew on as well.
ECONOMIST: The local politics of ��realigning�� America's bases
Though in the informal setting etiquette dictated no bows, Mr. Shimabukuro's head kept bobbing up and down involuntarily.
WSJ: His Ukelele Is On Fire | Jake Shimabukuro | Cultural Conversation by Matthew Gurewitsch
Clips in Tadashi Nakamura's award-winning portrait "Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings, " airing on PBS Friday, document the transformation.
WSJ: His Ukelele Is On Fire | Jake Shimabukuro | Cultural Conversation by Matthew Gurewitsch
Toast presents highlights from Shimabukuro's performance at the 2008 San Francisco Jazz Festival.
Partly that could have been because in a television spot for Farmers Insurance Hawaii, Mr. Shimabukuro's ukulele was seen bursting into flame.
WSJ: His Ukelele Is On Fire | Jake Shimabukuro | Cultural Conversation by Matthew Gurewitsch
Shimabukuro grew up playing traditional Hawaiian music on the ukulele, and has stuck with the instrument for 25 of his 29 years.
At the TED Conference for 2010, Mr. Shimabukuro's pyrotechnics rated a tweet from Bill Gates and handshakes from Al Gore and Matt Groening.
WSJ: His Ukelele Is On Fire | Jake Shimabukuro | Cultural Conversation by Matthew Gurewitsch
At the drop of a jaunty straw fedora, Mr. Shimabukuro will sermonize that the world would be a better place if more people played the ukulele.
WSJ: His Ukelele Is On Fire | Jake Shimabukuro | Cultural Conversation by Matthew Gurewitsch
"I really believe he got a lot of his ideas from the ukulele because they work so well with the instrument songs like Something, " Shimabukuro says.
On an appearance last year on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, for example, Shimabukuro played an amplified rock solo that sounded very much like an electric guitar.
"I owe a lot to Bruce Lee, " Mr. Shimabukuro says.
WSJ: His Ukelele Is On Fire | Jake Shimabukuro | Cultural Conversation by Matthew Gurewitsch
To see the glowing faces as an ebullient Mr. Shimabukuro teaches survivors well on in years to play "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, " who could guess what they have lost?
WSJ: His Ukelele Is On Fire | Jake Shimabukuro | Cultural Conversation by Matthew Gurewitsch
Jazz and rock critics have likened Mr. Shimabukuro (shee-mah-boo-kuh-roh) to such icons as Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix, comparisons now unfurled like Homeric boilerplate wherever his intercontinental tour schedule leads him.
WSJ: His Ukelele Is On Fire | Jake Shimabukuro | Cultural Conversation by Matthew Gurewitsch
Further illustration of Mr. Shimabukuro's credo comes in a segment of Mr. Nakamura's documentary from a senior shelter in the Japanese city of Sendai, devastated by the twin disasters of Fukushima.
WSJ: His Ukelele Is On Fire | Jake Shimabukuro | Cultural Conversation by Matthew Gurewitsch
However, scenting the chance for an even huger handout from Tokyo, Yoshikazu Shimabukuro, the newly elected mayor of the nearby city of Nago, demanded that the plan be rethought from scratch.
ECONOMIST: The local politics of ��realigning�� America's bases
"I think Alan's a genius, " Mr. Shimabukuro says.
WSJ: His Ukelele Is On Fire | Jake Shimabukuro | Cultural Conversation by Matthew Gurewitsch
Globally, Mr. Shimabukuro began connecting in a big way via one of YouTube's first viral videos, a rendition of George Harrison's rock elegy "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" shot in Manhattan's Central Park in 2006.
WSJ: His Ukelele Is On Fire | Jake Shimabukuro | Cultural Conversation by Matthew Gurewitsch
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