Shimabukuro's ukulele thrills audience

Fine performances are a dime a dozen, and thank goodness for them. Rarely, though, does one experience an example of human ability and accomplishment so new, so full of wonder and beauty, that it becomes lodged in the mind in a way that alters one's outlook on the world.

When was the last time your were present at a concert where more than 2,000 people sat utterly silent and in awe? When was the last time a song caused your throat to contract and your eyes to well with tears? When was the last time you asked yourself, "But how is this possible?"

Hawaiian-born Jake Shimabukuro, a young, slight, unassuming fellow with a ukulele, took the stage Saturday night at The Cistern and alternately shocked, mesmerized and thrilled the crowd. He offered brief explanations of each tune, a few anecdotes about his life — especially his tendency to lock himself in his room for hours and hours, exploring the possibilities of the instrument he first took up at age 4 — and a history of his musical path to success (via YouTube).

Thanks to effective amplification and limitless technique, he gets his ukulele to produce sounds sweet and percussive, lyrical and energetic. His strumming is the fastest I've seen. His finger picking is exceptional. Sometimes he uses only his thumb to play melodies, and sometimes those melodies move very quickly. He uses harmonics and finger tapping to great effect.

Shimabukuro opened with the Flamenco-style "Let's Dance," then played a piece called "Dragon," inspired by Bruce Lee and Eddie Van Halen. Probably the only thing he can't do with a ukulele is make a smoothie. No, wait, he can. "Blue Roses Falling," an original composition meant to mimic the hallucinations of a friend's sick grandmother, succeeded in evoking the image of rose petals wafting down onto her hospital bed. Smooth.

"Me and Shirley T" referred to Shimabukuro's childhood passion for the Shirley Temple cocktail. "Sakura Sakura" was an intricate, lovely song about cherry blossom season in Japan that Shimabukuro wrote after hearing the traditional Japanese 13-string instrument called the koto.

Each tune thrilled, especially George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (the song he played in the YouTube clip that took the world by storm).

One had the impression that Shimabukuro's concert was an act of discovery for audience and performer. He was eager to share his enthusiasm for the ukulele, to show us what it could do. This especially was evident when he played original songs, which clearly were designed to imitate other instruments or musical styles. As wonderful as they were, it was his interpretations of other people's music that worked best, for Shimabukuro let the music itself express his creative ideas and not only the instrument he has mastered so completely.