Shimabukuro to open
for Jimmy Buffett
in 7-show tour

At a sold-out Waikiki Shell show in April, singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett invited Hawaii ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro to join him onstage for two encores.

As the crowd cheered after one song, Buffett leaned over to Shimabukuro and said, "Passing the torch, Jake. Now run with it."

The torch passing between the veteran and the virtuoso continues at warp speed this summer when Shimabukuro, 28, will perform onstage with Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band for seven concerts beginning Tuesday in Bristow, Va., through June 30 in Lakeside, Ohio.

"I'm really excited to have Jake out with us," Buffett told the Star-Bulletin yesterday in a telephone interview from New York. "He hasn't any idea what (he's) about to participate in. It's going to be really fun, exposing him to a rather large, new possible fan base."

At a Shimabukuro show at New York City's Lions Den last month, Buffett and his managers stopped by and invited Shimabukuro to perform at some of Buffett's mainland concerts.

"I was totally blown away," Shimabukuro said. "I could hardly breathe. When you're talking mainland concerts with Jimmy Buffett, that's like 30,000 people.

"I've never played before more than 10,000 people, and that's a festival and I'm just one of several performers."

Shimabukuro said from San Francisco last night that the last year "has been filled with so many wonderful experiences."

Wonderful, indeed.

Last week, Shimabukuro was awarded the Best Instrumental Album of the Year at the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards for "Walking Down Rainhill." It was an unprecedented third straight win in this category for him.

And the Associated Press reported yesterday that his CD "Dragon" became the highest-debuting instrumental album ever in Japan after hitting stores there on June 1.

"Dragon," a more rock-oriented collection than Shimabukuro's earlier, softer-sounding albums, has already sold 30,000 copies in Japan, according to Sony Music's Yuri Furukawa. She said his last album, "Walking Down Rainhill," sold 65,000, with sales roughly even in the United States and Japan.

Sony, Shimabukuro's label, expects "Dragon" to sell 100,000 in Japan alone.

Furukawa said no other instrumental album has debuted as high on the general album charts in Japan. Traditionally they find success on the classical or jazz charts, she said.

Shimabukuro, whose unorthodox and energetic style has led some to call him the Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele, has a devoted fan base among the Japanese.

Now he is gearing up for a summer mainland tour of 20 states that will take him from California to the East Coast and include the Buffett shows.

"I'm going to be exposed to so many people performing with Jimmy that I'll be staying up late every night practicing, doing my chops over and over," he said. "I cannot mess up."