Ukulele virtuoso mixes Hawaiian folk with rock, blues, classica

TOKYO -- Jake Shimabukuro is perched on the verge of stardom. He still does the little clubs, but he can also fill arenas, pulling in thousands of raptured admirers. And he's a darling of the critics, who have compared him to such guitar greats as Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen.

Not bad, considering Shimabukuro plays the ukulele.

"I've always thought the ukulele was an untapped source of musical potential," the 27-year-old from Honolulu said recently after wrapping up his third Japanese tour. "I want to expose more and more people to the ukulele in this new fashion, changing people's perspective of the instrument."

Though his repertoire includes a healthy dose of Hawaiian folk songs and light beach music, he also does classical, rock and blues. He performs solo for the more serious, classical pieces. In a group, he plugs in his ukulele and goes nuts, playing it with his teeth a la Hendrix or using a pedal board to create electric-guitarlike effects.

Such virtuosity is quite a feat, since the ukulele has only four strings and a narrow range.

"Definitely, the ukulele is limited in a lot of ways. That's what makes it difficult and challenging," he said. "With a guitar, or any other string instrument, you have so much more range. Basically, you're working with only two octaves, which makes it very challenging when you're attacking classical pieces."

Shimabukuro, a fourth-generation Japanese-American, has since built a solid following in Japan, which has long had a love affair with all things Hawaiian.

To win over more hearts and minds, Shimabukuro will be touring the States over the next several months. His newest CD, "Walking Down Rainhill," also was released last month.