Grand Ukulele

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Grand Ukulele
Grand Ukulele CD cover.jpg
Studio album by Jake Shimabukuro
Released October 2, 2012
Label Hitchhike Records
Jake Shimabukuro chronology
Peace Love Ukulele
(2011)
Grand Ukulele
(2012)
Travels
(2015)

Grand Ukulele is Jake Shimabukuro's 2012 album, released in October 2012. The album was produced by Alan Parsons, with orchestrations done by Kip Winger.

Jake Shimabukuro American ukulele player and composer

Jake Shimabukuro is an American ukulele virtuoso and composer known for his fast and complex finger work. His music combines elements of jazz, blues, funk, rock, bluegrass, classical, folk, and flamenco. Shimabukuro has written numerous original compositions, including the entire soundtracks to two Japanese films, Hula Girls (2007) and the Japanese remake of Sideways (2009).

Alan Parsons English audio engineer, musician, and record producer

Alan Parsons is an English audio engineer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He was involved with the production of several significant albums, including the Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be, and the art rock band Ambrosia's debut album Ambrosia as well as Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon for which Pink Floyd credit him as an important contributor. Parsons' own group, the Alan Parsons Project, as well as his subsequent solo recordings, have also been successful commercially.

Kip Winger American musician

Charles Frederick Kip Winger is an American rock musician, a member of the rock band Winger, and a solo artist. He initially gained notability as a member of Alice Cooper's band, contributing bass and vocals to his Constrictor and Raise Your Fist and Yell albums.

Contents

Grand Ukulele features a 29-piece orchestra and a rhythm section, with the ukulele as solo instrument, and was recorded in live studio sessions with no over-dubbing. The album reached number 2 on Billboard's Top World Music Albums in 2012 and 2013. [1]

The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in Billboard magazine. Billboard biz, the online extension of the Billboard charts, provides additional weekly charts. There are also Year End charts. The charts may be dedicated to specific genre such as R&B, country or rock, or they may cover all genres. The charts can be ranked according to sales, streams or airplay, and for main song charts such as the Hot 100 song chart, all three pools of data are used to compile the charts. For the Billboard 200 album chart, streams and track sales are included in addition to album sales.

The styles featured on the album range from, and sometimes merge: classical, blues, flamenco, mandolin, rockabilly, surf rock, and music box. [2]

Classical music broad tradition of Western art music

Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western culture, including both liturgical (religious) and secular music. While a more precise term is also used to refer to the period from 1750 to 1820, this article is about the broad span of time from before the 6th century AD to the present day, which includes the Classical period and various other periods. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common-practice period. The major time divisions of Western art music are as follows:

Blues is a music genre and musical form which was originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1870s by African Americans from roots in African musical traditions, African-American work songs, spirituals, and the folk music of white Americans of European heritage. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes, usually thirds or fifths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove.

Flamenco genre of Spanish music; UNESCO intangible cultural heritage

Flamenco, in its strictest sense, is a professionalized art-form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain in the autonomous communities of Andalusia, Extremadura and Murcia. In a wider sense, it refers to these musical traditions and more modern musical styles which have themselves been deeply influenced by and become blurred with the development of flamenco over the past two centuries. It includes cante (singing), toque, baile (dance), jaleo, palmas (handclapping) and pitos.

Inception

Renowned producer/engineer Alan Parsons attended Shimabukuro's concert near where Parsons lives in Santa Barbara, and asked the concert promoter to put him in touch. They had dinner, and Parsons suggested working together on a project. [3]

Santa Barbara, California City in California, United States

Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County in the U.S. state of California. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Santa Barbara's climate is often described as Mediterranean, and the city has been promoted as the "American Riviera". As of 2014, the city had an estimated population of 91,196, up from 88,410 in 2010, making it the second most populous city in the county after Santa Maria. The contiguous urban area, which includes the cities of Goleta and Carpinteria, along with the unincorporated regions of Isla Vista, Montecito, Mission Canyon, Hope Ranch, Summerland, and others, has an approximate population of 220,000. The population of the entire county in 2010 was 423,895.

Parsons helped Shimabukuro expand his sound, bringing in a 29-piece orchestra and a big-name rhythm section, including drummer Simon Phillips (The Who, Toto), bassist Randy Tico, and Kip Winger (Winger, Alice Cooper), who helped with the orchestration. [3]

Simon Phillips (drummer) English drummer

Simon Phillips is an English jazz, pop, and rock drummer and record producer. He worked with rock bands during the 1970s and 1980s and was the drummer for the band Toto from 1992 to 2014.

The Who English rock band

The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic line-up consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered one of the most influential rock bands of the 20th century, selling over 100 million records worldwide.

Toto (band) American rock band

Toto is an American rock band formed in 1977 in Los Angeles. The band's current lineup consists of Joseph Williams, David Paich, Steve Porcaro (keyboards), Steve Lukather, plus touring members Lenny Castro (percussion), Warren Ham (saxophone), Shem von Schroeck (bass) and Shannon Forrest (drums). Toto is known for a musical style that combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, progressive rock, hard rock, R&B, blues, and jazz.

Shimabukuro commented afterwards: "The best thing was that, even with all those people, we recorded everything live with no overdubs. It was great, tracking live with an orchestra and a rhythm section. We picked up on each other’s subtle emotional cues – you could feel everyone breathing together. It was like the old days of recording – when everyone tracked together – there’s a certain magic that happens." [3]

Track listing

All tracks composed by Jake Shimabukuro except where noted

  1. "Ukulele Five-O"
  2. "Rolling In The Deep" (Adele / Paul Epworth)
  3. "Gentlemandolin"
  4. "More Ukulele"
  5. "Missing Three"
  6. "Music Box"
  7. "143"
  8. "Over The Rainbow" (Harold Arlen)
  9. "Island Fever Blues"
  10. "Fields Of Gold" (Sting)
  11. "Gone Fishing"
  12. "Akaka Falls" (Helen Parker)

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