Four Strings Good

What Jimi Hendrix did for the electric guitar and Bela Fleck for the banjo, Hawaiian Jake Shimabukuro has done for the ukulele, taking the playing of the humble four-string into places undreamt. The 36-year-old is currently touring his 11th album, Grand Ukulele – 20th if you include his Japan-only releases – which was produced by no less than UK producer, composer and musician, Alan Parsons, whose credits start with engineering on The Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be albums, and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon, through to producing Al Stewart to Cockney Rebel to Ladyhawke, as well as his own Alan Parsons Project.

“It was such an honour working with Alan,” Shimabukuro admits humbly, “because he's such an icon and been one of my heroes forever, so being able to work with him was incredible – I learned so much about the recording studio, about arrangements. He brought in an amazing cast of artists, people, like Kip Winger [who did the orchestrations], Simon Phillips, one of my favourite drummers, [bass player] Randy Chico, the 30-piece National Orchestra – for me it was truly a great, great experience.”

Best of all, the invitation to record with Parsons came completely out of the blue: “He actually came to a couple of my shows when I was touring in the States and at the second show he came to, I actually got to talk to him after my soundcheck and he's like, 'Hey, ya wanna go grab a bite to eat?' and I said, 'Oh, sure'. So we went out to dinner and while we were having sushi, he leaned over and said, 'Hey, if you're interested, I would love to produce your next record'. So I wanted to take up his offer before he changed his mind!”

While Shimabukuro has been fervently committed to the ukulele since he was given one at the age of four, with never a thought to graduate to guitar like most teenagers, he went through a phase of putting his uke through all manner of effects pedals only to return to the instrument's natural timbre – letting his extraordinary playing technique do the talking. On this album, he tests his mettle even further by composing a piece to be played on a three-string uke.

“That song [Missing Three], it's funny,” he laughs. “I really stumbled upon that situation completely by accident. Changing my ukulele strings one day I was missing the third string in that pack, so I just put on the other three strings and I thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool to write a song with the three strings?' So I started playing and noodling around and came up with that piece, and it was the first song that I sent to Alan and he thought it was absolutely beautiful – 'We need to record that with an orchestra'. It's funny because I tell people that I was so proud of the fact that I could play the whole song with just three strings, but now there's a 30-piece orchestra on it, there's over a hundred strings on the song!”

The recently released Japanese edition of Grand Ukulele includes a bonus track specially written for it, an original collaboration with a Japanese singer. Last year, Shimabukuro recorded Ukulele Disney exclusively for Japan. “It was perfect timing,” he admits with a chuckle, “because my wife and I just had a baby, so I was kind of in that Disney mould, you know.”

The past year has also seen Shimabukuro followed around on tour by a film crew. Directed by Tadashi Nakamura, the documentary, Jake Shimabukuro: Life On Four Strings premiered at the Seattle Asian American Film Festival in January.

Jake Shimabukuro will be playing the following dates:

Wednesday 27 March - Powerhouse, Brisbane QLD
Thursday 28 and Friday 29 - Bluesfest, Byron Bay NSW
Sunday 31 March - Lizottes, Newcastle NSW
Monday 1 April - Lizottes, Central Coast NSW
Wednesday 3 April - Lizottes, Dee Why NSW
Thursday 4 April - The Basement, Sydney NSW
Friday 5 April - The Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 6 April - The Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide SA