by Dave Thorpe
Last night I ventured out into the social world for the first time in well over two years. My health vulnerabilities have meant I have had to be extremely cautious about the risk of Covid, so other than my treatment in hospital three times a week I have been at home with my wife, my ukes and you lovely people online.
But last night was the final night of Jake Shimabukuro’s UK tour. He was joined by one of the UK’s most respected uke players and the guy who has been teaching me Formby style Banjolele – Andy Eastwood. I couldn’t really resist going so I masked up heavily and called an Uber.
Kings Place is a beautifully spacious and well-ventilated concert venue near King’s Cross Station on the Grand Union Canal in London. When I had phoned to book my ticket, I explained my need for an aisle seat to minimise social contact as much as possible. To this the extremely helpful lady in the box office told me that they have a policy that people with disabilities – including invisible ones like mine get free tickets so attendance cost me nothing.
It was an absolute privilege to hear two such great and very different players in one evening. Andy played everything from Chopin to Glen Milker to Formby on uke, Banjolele and fiddle. He’s a great singer and entertainer too, so very much more than just a warmup for the main man.
But Jake is truly a master of the instrument. In truth it doesn’t seem like an instrument – more a part of him and the voice with which he chooses to express his musicality. He was accompanied by his friend Jackson Waldhoff on bass, who is another great musician and a perfect complement to Jake’s playing.
For me the highlights of the evening were the tunes which showcased Jake’s intricate picking and beautiful chord voicings. These included a stunning Japanese solo piece with which he kicked off his first set and a beautiful tune of his own – ‘Blue Roses Falling’. There were a few Beatles numbers – ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘Something’, ‘Here Comes the Sun’ with Andy coming on stage to sing and of course ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’
There were plenty of instrumentals where Jake encouraged the audience to sing along – ‘Don’t Go Changing’ and to close the show ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
For those who like things a bit rockier Jake obviously is not averse to using his pedals to loop rhythm tracks and then hitting the distortion pedal to solo over the top often throwing in musical quotes – including the inevitable ‘Smoke On the Water’ and ‘Stairway to Heaven’. Not my cup of tea to be honest but they are crowd pleasers I guess!!
It was a superb, superb evening. So nice to hear live music again in such a lovely venue. Inspiring and so uplifting.
I’m including some pictures here – a few of my own but some from Jake’s FB page and one from Andy’s with Jake holding George Formby’s Gibson UB3 Banjolele. On Jake’s page you can also find some live footage of gigs he’s done on his UK tour. Worth browsing through for sure.
I’m writing this in bed with a morning cup of tea. When I get up, I am going to get a Hawaiian shirt and the Kamaka out and see what I can do….