Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The atmospheric brilliance displayed by the unexpected is such that when it hits you, when it finds you gasping for breath in the wake of its unmistakeable majesty, it leaves all that you may have become used to, floundering under the weight of your pre-conceived ideas.
Such is the presence created by Jake Shimabukuro and his ukulele, the pleasure that bounds forth is not only atmospheric, it positively invokes the passion found in the realm of imagination and asks the listener to embrace the fundamental essence of tone, mood and musical environment; a point of maintain the healthy respect to which art and the ability to appreciate are the twin pillars of civilisation.
What Jake Shimabukuro manages to convey as he takes the ukulele to new levels of inspiration is that nothing in this world is so rigid as fixed, regimented and prejudiced ideals, the unwavering stigma to which we have at one time or another based our biased definitions upon. The ukulele in some quarters is an instrument played by those not wishing to break the status quo of musical ability, Jake Shimabukuro defies that outlook, almost shaming the stiff and inflexible term into submission.
Whilst it could be impossible to not talk about the obvious stand out track, the incredible re-working of one of Pink Floyd’s seminal recording moments, the sublime Wish You Were Here, there is a wealth of music that the album invariably thrills the listener with, that captures the heart and allows it break loose from its own severe ties and on the surreal explosions that encompass joy, pleasure and form that follow, including the opener When The Masks Come Down, Resistance, Morning Blue and the immense pleasure to be found in Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide, a song which features the tumultuous and unrestrained beauty of Dearling’s Rachel James on vocals, Trio not only fills the room with warmth, it breaks down any idea of leniency that comes with meticulous.
You can be brave and beautiful, you can be strong and yet be capable of change, as Trio progresses, so too does the idea of adaptable construct and in Trio, that firm base of creativity is rigorously and unwaveringly pliable. An album open to the feeling of majesty, of deftness of touch; unbound, unbroken and full of life.
Jake Shimabukuro’s Trio is available now from Music Theories Recordings/Mascot Label Group.
Ian D. HallÂ