I just got back from an amazing evening interviewing Jake Shimabukuro . I knew that Jake was a seriously talented musician but never expected such a wonderful in depth discussion about music. We talked about how he set about working out Bohemian Rhapsody for ukulele and that when he played it at the Ted Talk this was the first time he had ever played it live!
Prior to meeting up I checked on previous interviews and wanted to ensure that we discussed music in some depth. It was a fascinating 42 minutes (we over ran, it was only supposed to be 30 minutes!) and we discussed everyone from Buddy Rich to Pat Metheny, Bill Frissell, Carlos Santana and George Harrison! Jake is clearly a master musician and very aware of a wide range of music. After the interview I was able to see him live in the second row at Leeds Town Hall. The sound was terrific and this was a superb well paced set that was met with a standing ovation by the good people of Yorkshire. As I suspected this was one of those “yes I was there” gigs and Jake was able to show how he could 
captivate an audience with a single ukulele playing a 90 minute set. His technical skills are simply astonishing.
As my co writer for The Small Change Diaries and good friend Jessica Bowie commented at the end of the show “Well we may as well step up our practice or burn our ukuleles!” I couldn’t have put it better myself!
He mentioned that he really like seeing the UK and hoped to return. I for one would jump at the chance to meet up with him again!
Thanks to Van for helping organise this interview
