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| Racheal Alvstad / Scroll |
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Jake Shimabukuro performed at the Oscar A. Kirkham Auditorium with his virtuoso ukulele playing Wednesday and Thursday night.
During the faster portions of his music, Shimabukuro’s rapid finger movements made it appear that his hand wasn’t even touching the instrument at all.
“I’ve never seen anybody play anything that fast, ever,” said Evoni Jolliff a freshman from Medford, Ore. “That’s intense!”
Playing a wide variety of songs from “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to “Mrs. Robinson,” Shimabukuro seemed as though he was jamming like a rock star on stage.
His antics put smiles on many faces of audience members as he blessed a sneezer from the crowd raved about Big Jud’s French fries, and gave humorous background stories about his songs.
“I thought he was an amazing musician,” said Don Sparhawk, Center Stage coordinator. “I loved watching his [facial] expressions.”
Sparhawk saw Shimabukuro at a conference last year and said he thought the students at BYU-Idaho would love him.
“He was able to play all styles of music on that tiny ukulele,” Sparhawk said. “I thought it was a great variety.”
At the concert there was something for everyone, from the elderly to the very young. Classical, funk, jazz, bluegrass and the sounds of rock music could be heard throughout the performance.
A crowd favorite was Shimabukuro’s rendition of “Wipe Out.” As soon as his fingers began to strum the high-speed melody, the audience cheered its approval.
However, things quieted down later when Shimabukuro introduced one of his original works, entitled “Touch,” which carried with it a more subdued melody.
The song, he said, was written in order to capture the importance of human touch, even in something as simple as a handshake.
Shimabukuro also performed several songs from his album Dragon, released today.
Two new songs from that album, entitled “Heartbeat” and “Dragon,” were blended together and played with a tape-echo machine which repeated notes and tappings that generated the image of a beating heart and mystical dragon.
When asked what he enjoys most about performing, Jake Shimabukuro said he likes the “feeling of connection with the audience through music.”
His performance may have been different, but listening to the power of a rock band harnessed into a tiny ukulele brought the audience to their feet when the show ended.
