On Wednesday night, the University Musical Society (UMS) had ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro at Hill Auditorium. Shimabukuro wowed the crowd as he strummed so fast that his hands were a blur. Him and his bass player Nolan Verner played original songs off of his new album titled Nashville Sessions such as “F Minor”, “Celtic Tune”, and “Blue Haiku”. They also played popular songs such as the Beatles song “Come Together” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Shimabukuro took the stage alone as he paid tribute to Leonard Cohen by playing “Hallelujah”.
My friend and I ended up getting the opportunity to meet Jake after the concert and get a picture and autograph. He was so sweet and extremely down to earth, even thanking us for coming to his concert! I told him about how I started playing the ukulele a year ago and as I was leaving he said, “Good luck on the uke!” Definitely an experience that I’ll never forget!
Upcoming performances through UMS can be found at http://ums.org/season/.
