One Jake Shimabukuro was at Newport this year. He was on a side stage so we didn't see his full set, but we did see him solo with Levon Helm. Shortly thereafter, there was a big article in the Sunday Styles section about the rise of the ukulele in recent years. Apparently, people find it easy to pick up...four strings instead of six. Jake was mentioned in the article and the author pointed me to his YouTube videos. They are quite fantastic! I'll include two here: "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Let's Dance." The latter makes me think that the ukulele that's "easy to pick up" is not the one he's playing. He makes that thing sing!
Monday, September 1, 2008
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Adam bought one in Bora Bora - it has 8 strings and is so rad. He's had a tough time playing because the strumming pattern is different on a Tahitian Uke than a Hawaiian.
I learned it means "jumping fleas" in Hawaiian because of the jumpy noise the strings makes! How fun!
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