Jake Shimabukuro Just Performed at TED - The Uke world changed fovever

rayan

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Our friend Jake Shimabukuro just performed at TED and received a standing ovation. TED is an exclusive idea conference where the worlds brightest minds come together to present their ideas, research, creations, talents etc. Everyone who is in the audience is a scheduled presenter. You can say that it is a small conference of geniuses (in their respected fields).

Why does this change everything for the ukulele? Many of the people there are influencers to the highest degree, let me give you an example of the type of person in the audience

http://twitter.com/BillGates/status/8916544197

I think it is highly likely for the people there to go and spread the word about what the ukulele is capable of and we may see even MORE new ukulele players out there. There's a trend at TED to have more and more web and technology speakers and if the uke catches on in that scene, it has the chance to go viral like no other instrument ever.

I know some people don't like Jake's music, but you cannot deny all that he has done for the instrument, opening people's eyes to what it is capable of and by that fact expanding appreciation for it world wide.
 
I love Twitter for this exact reason. It really does seem to be getting a lot of attention! Haven't really explored the 'ukulele Twitter community... Is it out there?
 
It appears he played Ave Maria and Bohemian Rhapsody. I really hope a video gets up soon, but to subscribe to the TED live feed is like $1000, so I won't be holding my breath.
 
They usually post the best ones up on the website free to watch. Don't know if they're doing Jake's one though because there was some copyrighted stuff in it.
 
What kind of stuff did he talk about? why did they invite him rather than any other prodigy or instrument?
 
What kind of stuff did he talk about? why did they invite him rather than any other prodigy or instrument?

They have had other prodigies in the past. Jake is unique though because most people already have a preconceived notion of what the ukulele is capable of and his playing shatters all expectations. The point of TED is to open eyes to possibilities and Jake fits the mold perfectly. Most people have seen amazing guitarists, pianists, etc, not many have seen amazing ukulele players.
 
You tube? Twitter? Jake is taking over the world through technology. What will he conquer next? I'm happy for him.
 
This is great news! I've been casually following TED for a few years now. Some really influential/famous talks have come out of it.

JJ
 
I love jake and all that he had done for the uke. Hope to get to one of his shows before he gets so big that the closest I get to him is the nose bleeds.
 
Glad to hear that, Jake is one of the artists who converted me from the delusion that uke's are a "toy/joke" instrument.
 
Sarah Silverman was at TED so I'm not going to count on anything special about this until I see it for myself.
 
It appears he played Ave Maria and Bohemian Rhapsody. I really hope a video gets up soon, but to subscribe to the TED live feed is like $1000, so I won't be holding my breath.

I like the concept of TED and I have seen their free talks on the net, but it seems pretty elitist. For starters, there's the $6000 (!!??) fee as well as an essay you have to write to have a chance at attending. Charging $1k to watch on the net sounds crazy! Charging this much guarantees that your audience will be limited to rich folks. I know that they have some free stuff on the net, but I feel like the spirit of TED talks is to spread good ideas. They should rely more on philanthropy and charge a more reasonable fee to attend/ participate!
 
Mark Frauenfelder is going to put an interview with Jake up at boingboing.net

If you're not familiar with Mark he is a real techie, a founder of boingboing, a uke player, and an artist. He designed the Flea logo for FleaMarketMusic.

flea.jpg
 
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It's amazing how much commotion a single line of text can create!
 
They have had other prodigies in the past. Jake is unique though because most people already have a preconceived notion of what the ukulele is capable of and his playing shatters all expectations. The point of TED is to open eyes to possibilities and Jake fits the mold perfectly. Most people have seen amazing guitarists, pianists, etc, not many have seen amazing ukulele players.

One word: Theremin :)

/edit: okay, more words. I'm interested to see what John Underkoffler has to say (he developed the Minority Report computer UI), as well as Ken Robinson (especially given his last talk), Philip K. Howard, and to a lesser extent Jamie Oliver. See the list of speakers here - Jake's included:

http://conferences.ted.com/TED2010/program/speakers.php

N.b. I've been watching TED videos for a few years now
 
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One word: Theremin :)

/edit: okay, more words. I'm interested to see what John Underkoffler has to say (he developed the Minority Report computer UI), as well as Ken Robinson (especially given his last talk), Philip K. Howard, and to a lesser extent Jamie Oliver. See the list of speakers here - Jake's included:

http://conferences.ted.com/TED2010/program/speakers.php

N.b. I've been watching TED videos for a few years now

The Theremin is so cool. I used one when I was in school, so much fun to play with. This lady is phenomenal though!!
 
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