Some Jake Love for the Baritone

Ukulele Eddie

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After inadvertently dissing our baritone loving brethren by leaving the baritone off a poll I created a few months, I figured I'd try to make amends by sharing this post from Jake's FB posting last night:

...Going to change my strings now before going to bed. I'm using three ukuleles in the new show! I have 2 Kamaka tenors and a Kamaka baritone that's over forty years old! I'm using my newest tenor for most of the songs. But I switch to my old tenor for Blue Roses Falling and the electric set. Then I switch over to the baritone for a few songs. I love playing the baritone. There's such a richness to the tone. I guess after forty years, the instrument is so "broken in" that every note just sings. Anyway, I love it all...
-- Jake Shimabukuro


 
I saw that on Facebook. It's interesting to watch Jake continue to try new (to us, anyway) things, like bass accompaniment and playing a baritone. He also mentioned, in the quote posted by the OP, that he's now using two of his custom Kamakas instead of one. At one time, he had said he played only one uke during performances.
 
I saw the show last night--it was fantastic (and very different from what he was doing just a year ago)! It blew my mind to see him bring out a baritone. He played three songs on it, and he's right about the old Kamaka--it was really a gorgeous sound. He also has a bass player on about 1/3 to 1/2 of the show, which added a really cool extra dimension to things, and he's actually playing with a pedal board (including sampler/loopers--he did a multi-layered version of Dragon, complete with crazy distorted Santana-esque tone for a solo over his own clean rhythm playing)! Definitely catch him this tour if you can.
 
I saw the show last night--it was fantastic (and very different from what he was doing just a year ago)! It blew my mind to see him bring out a baritone. He played three songs on it, and he's right about the old Kamaka--it was really a gorgeous sound. He also has a bass player on about 1/3 to 1/2 of the show, which added a really cool extra dimension to things, and he's actually playing with a pedal board (including sampler/loopers--he did a multi-layered version of Dragon, complete with crazy distorted Santana-esque tone for a solo over his own clean rhythm playing)! Definitely catch him this tour if you can.

As an artist you have to keep trying new things, otherwise it would get boring I am sure! The creative process is wonderful :) My baritone arrives Monday, can't wait!!!
 
When we saw the show last month in Ventura, Jake played some of those old Hawaiian songs on the Baritone and it sounded so good. I thought that was the best part of the night but then this was the first time we'd seen him in a concert and didn't know what to expect.
 
Going tomorrow evening to the show in Ridgefield Conn. Jake could play a washtub bass and still make wonderful music. Too many artists are basically one trick ponies when it comes to live shows. An artist needs to grow and experiment. Sometimes what you experiment with does not work and you move on. It's the journey that counts and helps you to learn and grow as an artist. We don't grow if we don't challenge ourselves. It's okay to fail sometimes.
I sometimes piss off my guitar playing friends when I disagree with them on their opinions of the guitar gods. Eric Clapton and Carlos Santana are two musicians whose playing bores me after two or three songs. Their soloing has never grown in my opinion. They are both fine players, however they are playing the same licks now that they played in 1969. I want to hear something new and be surprised as well as hearing an artist's signature songs or hits. I have never felt that these two artists have grown because they don't seem to challenge themselves.
Jake could play it safe and do the same thing, tour after tour, year after year. Same thing for may of the other great ukers like James Hill, Brittany Paiva etc. Change is good however and I hope Jake and the others mentioned continue to grow and experiment.
 
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