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Jake Shimabukuro has experienced many wow moments during his celebrated career, but a chance to play the legendary Liverpool club where the Beatles started almost left him speechless.
A massive fan of the Beatles, the ukulele wizard’s video version of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” brought him worldwide attention, and he has featured covers of a number of their songs on his albums, so he relished an opportunity to play their birthplace in September on his first U.K. tour.
“It was awesome, I couldn’t believe it,” he enthuses. “I flew from Honolulu to Atlanta, had a 12-hour layover and then flew straight to Liverpool and got there at noon, and by 3 p.m. I was on the Beatles’ tour already, on the bus for the Magical Mystery Tour. That’s how excited I was. I got to touch the front door of George Harrison’s house where he grew up, and I went to Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane, and we ended up at the Cavern.”
It turns out the manager of the Cavern Club was a big fan of Shimabukuro’s playing.
“He had seen my YouTube video of ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps,’ so he was like, ‘Would you want to go up and play?’ I was like, ‘I would love to play.’ “
And that’s how our ukulele virtuoso got to mesmerize a lucky crowd at the historic venue.
“There was a Beatles’ cover band playing, and I got up there and played ‘In My Life,’ ‘Something’ and ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps,’ ” he continues. “It was crazy because the Cavern is a loud bar and it’s like playing in a cave, but when I started playing it was unbelievable, you could hear a pin drop. The manager said, ‘I’ve never heard this place like this.’ It was incredible.”
Shimabukuro had previously only briefly visited the U.K., when he was invited to play for Queen Elizabeth at a charity show in 2009, so British ukulele fans were ecstatic when his four-city tour was announced.
“When I went there the first time, it was for the Royal Variety Performance and we weren’t able to leave the building because of a security lockdown, but I did get to meet the queen,” he notes. “So this was really my first experience in the U.K. It was wonderful, we felt like rock stars.”
Other memorable highlights this year include performing the “Campanella: Concerto for Ukulele and Orchestra,” the first-ever classical concerto written for the ukulele. Commissioned by the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, the complex concerto was composed by Dr. Byron Yasui. At the world premiere in June, it marked the first time the ukulele was presented as a classical instrument.
“When I first got the music, I told Dr. Yasui this is impossible,” Shimabukuro reveals. “He said, ‘I know you can do it.’ A week later, he called and said, ‘It’s really not fair for me to write a piece like this without consulting you. If you want to simplify any parts, let me know.’ At that point I had put so many hours in that I said, ‘No, I want to play the piece that you imagined.’ I never worked so hard on a piece. I worked on it measure by measure. After the concert so many people congratulated me, but I realized classical musicians work that hard all the time. It was a small glimpse into their world.”
In October, Shimabukuro released “Travels,” his most accomplished, diverse work to date. Reflecting influences ranging from Hawaiian and neo-classical, to jazz, funk and rock, it features original compositions and some covers, including a novel interpretation of War’s Latin classic “Low Rider.”
“I’ve always wanted to do ‘Low Rider,’ ” he explains. “The lead line is played by Lee Oscar on harmonica, and I’ve always felt the harmonica was the ukulele of wind instruments because of its limited range and stereotypes. I thought it would be great to play and almost treat it like a blues in some parts. I especially liked it because it was my vocal debut. When I wake up in the morning that’s what my voice sounds like. The outro solo at the end was all live and we kept going until finally my arm became tired.”
With a number of tracks employing travel metaphors, he explains how the album “plays on the idea of not only physically traveling, but my own journey as a ukulele player since I was a kid. There’s an evolution aspect from the traditional with ‘Hi??’ilawe’ (which he plays solo on a baritone ukulele) and then my interpretation of ‘Kawika,’ paying respect to Sunday Manoa and Peter Moon, and also bringing in my rock influence with electric ukulele, which is a tribute to my Iron Maiden influence. ‘Kawika’ for ukulele players growing up in Hawaii was our ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ “
The album’s title track is probably the most complex and experimental that this virtuoso has recorded. Opening with an elegant, old world/European feel by the middle section, he veers into free-form, Ornette Coleman-style jazz improvisation.
“I wrote that piece the day before I went into the studio,” he says. “It just came to me. That whole track was done in one take with a pre-recorded loop. It was fun to play. I wanted it to be first on the album because it makes a statement about what the album’s about, but my manager was like, ‘It might be a little too much, we’ll use it later in the middle,’ which was probably a good idea. The way I approached the song was as a tribute to Ohta-San, because he was a hero.”
Playing with bassist Dean Taba, drummer Noel Okimoto, keyboardist Michael Grande and guitarist Jeff Richmond, Shimabukuro also ventures into soulful jazz territory with “Haven’t We Been Here Before,” a track Pat Metheny might relish.
“It was Pat Metheny’s album ‘Travels’ which turned me onto jazz,” he notes. “It hit me so hard. I was so moved, it made me teary the first time I heard it. A different part of me opened up. With this album being a turning point for me, I thought it would be cool to call it ‘Travels.’ “
Another surprise on the album, he debuts his first original vocal composition, the lovely “Everything is Better with You,” which features old friends Bryan Tolentino, Chris Kamaka, Del Beazley and Asa Young, who perform as the Side Order Band.
“When the four of them are together, they are the modern Sons of Hawaii,” says Shimabukuro. “They blow me away and they don’t have a record, and they never played a concert together in Hawaii until last year. The members of the Side Order Band were a huge part of my process in growing. The first time I went to Japan in 1999, I was their opening act and they were like rock stars there. Nobody knew who I was. The first show in Osaka, I was reminded how special and beautiful traditional Hawaiian music is. It brought me back to my roots.”
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As part of the BMI Maui Songwriters Festival, a show tonight at Charley’s Restaurant & Saloon in Paia will feature Lily Meola, Nashville’s Loving Mary and Mark Johnstone’s Wavetrain. The evening will be hosted by TV/radio broadcaster Storme Warren.
* Show time is at 8 p.m. today, and there’s a $20 cover. For more information, visit www.mauisongwritersfestival.com.
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Meola will also perform at Charley’s on Dec. 17, joining Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real. Her debut album, “They Say,” will be released Dec. 18.
Fresh from touring with Neil Young, Nelson and his band will play Charley’s again Dec. 18 and 19. The band is finishing a new album.
“This record is a lot more positive and reflective than the last,” Nelson reports. “‘Wasted’ was a snapshot of this darker place I was in. This new album is me having emerged from that place and finding balance again in my life and really connecting with my band.”
* For more information, call 579-8085.
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Guitar virtuoso Eric McFadden will perform with Delphine de St. Paer at 10 p.m. Friday at Charley’s.
An acclaimed musician who has toured with funk master George Clinton (Parliament/Funkadelic) and rock legend Eric Burdon (the Animals), McFadden has also played with Bo Diddley, The Clash’s Joe Strummer, Bonnie Rait and Rolling Stone Ron Wood.
A San Francisco Bay Guardian review noted: “McFadden is a master of guitar and mandolin, a veteran who waltzes the dark, eerie corridors between Jimi Hendrix and Django Reinhardt.”
Mark Johnstone, Danny M and Paul Marchetti will play with McFadden.
* A limited number of presale tickets are available for $10 and $15 at www.EricRocks.Eventbrite.com. Admission at the door is $20.