Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Ambition, if channelled wisely, is the gigantic spur of all artistic creation. To create out of freedom, of being able to look at the unblemished, untouched marble that stands between you and eternity, is driven by the unmistakable fact that what the artist sees is potential, to capture something unique in the detail.
No matter the field of artistic endeavour, the chance, the ability to practise what you preach is embedded deeply into the soul, and perhaps if that vision of immortality is shared, combined with another’s impressive prowess, then what is revealed is not only verging on the unique, but also irreplaceable.
Such is the magic that resides in the acclaimed Hawaiian ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro’s hands as the timing of his release of his own ambition, and creatively sensational album, Jake & Friends, is given to the world with beauty sewn tightly into the wonderous colour and backdrop but is also dynamic enough to capture the soul and ear of the listener with a vibrant expectation of the rare event being caught by a thousand cameras.
Those friends that surround the ukulele read as a who’s who of music, and to have such friends speaks highly of the artist. To have the enormity of Jimmy Buffet, Willie Nelson, the incomparable Bette Midler, Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, the exceptional Jon Anderson, Warren Haynes, Ziggy Marley, and Amy Grant woven deeply into tracks such as the superb cover of the Beatles’ hit All You Need Is Love, Why Not, On The Road To Freedom, Come Money, A Day In The Life, Stardust, and bounty of The Rose all being delivered with respect, with honour, and a huge application of honest passion, it is no wonder that what could be considered a charming, humble recording, is in fact a giant ready to be aurally consumed.
Ambition, in the wrong hands, can be stifling, it can overwhelm the process of collaboration, and it takes humility, the unpretentious heart, to see the venture succeed, to see it become rooted in the mind of those that hear it.
For Jake Shimabukuro, and his friends, what has been captured is not just music, it is not even ambition, it is the pleasure of a humble soul providing expertise on an instrument that so many don’t give credit to until it suits them, in Jake & Friends that credit is there for all to hear and take pleasure in.
Jake Shimabukuro releases Jake & Friends on November 12th.
Ian D. Hall