Jazz Articles

Our daily articles are carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. You can find more articles by searching our website, see what's trending on our popular articles page or read articles ahead of their published dates on our Coming Soon page. Read our daily album reviews.

204

Album Review

Jake Shimabukuro: Gently Weeps

Read "Gently Weeps" reviewed by Jim Santella

by Jim Santella
September 30, 2006

Hawaiian ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro covers a wide range of musical styles. Like a classical guitarist who can't be satisfied with a narrow repertoire of known entities, Shimabukuro reaches out to the worlds of jazz, blues, funk, folk, rock and beyond. He performs twelve selections a cappella, while the remaining five bonus tracks feature a large number of guests.

Shimabukuro opens Gently Weeps with George Harrison's tune “While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which features the expressive slide technique ...

212

Album Review

Jake Shimabukuro: Gently Weeps

Read "Gently Weeps" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
September 20, 2006

Pity the poor ukulele. Consigned to a less-than-respectable fate thanks to Tiny Tim and movies like Elvis Presley's Paradise, Hawaiian Style, this small four-string cousin to the guitar just can't get any respect. Jake Shimabukuro has been working hard to change that over the past few years on albums like Skyline (Epic, 2003) and Dragon (Hitchhike, 2005). But while earlier recordings have placed Shimabukuro's diminutive instrument in larger group settings, Gently Weeps is all the more remarkable for being a ...