Shimabukuro shows what you can do with 4 strings – JH News&Guide

Jake Shimabukuro loves to play the ukulele.

His mother gave him his first one when he was 4, and since 1999 he has released more than three dozen studio albums, most recently 2024’s “The Blues Experience” with drummer Mick Fleetwood. He loves to play solo, creating rich and intricate arrangements of his own tunes as well as favorites from across many genres. He loves to collaborate, as on his 2021 album “Jake & Friends,” where he shares tracks with Jack Johnson, Ziggy Marley, Billy Strings, Willie Nelson and a dozen other A-listers. He loves to simply pick up his instrument for his own pleasure.

“When I’m not performing, not in the studio or practicing, I love to just play it,” he said, “to play it for myself.”

But the thing he loves more than anything is playing for a live audience, as he will Thursday when the Grand Teton Music Festival hosts the undisputed grand virtuoso at Walk Festival Hall.

“My favorite thing to do is live performance,” he last week from his home in Honolulu, just a couple of days before departing for a week of shows in Colorado, Wyoming and California. “I love being in the moment, letting things happen, being spontaneous.”

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