Monthly Archives: September 2008

The Carpenters – Close To You
13
Sep

This weekend’s recording is a nice song, which dates back to my parents time. They were probably listening to this song over the radio.

The Carpenters’ Close To You.

Jake Shimabukuro did a great job of covering this song.
Inspired by him, I decided to give it a try by recording a shortened version of the song.

Once again, I used my digital camera on this one. Worried that I might damage the built-in mic of the camera over time, I played further away, and hence it doesn’t cut through as much. I’m thinking of buying a Shure SM57 recording mic to try out…. So stay tuned~

A few unforeseen extra sounds got included in the recording (MSN messenger and garbage man pushing the trash cart.)
Sorry for the interruptions…….

James Hill – One Note Samba
10
Sep

I was surfing around YouTube for the usual ukulele video watching, and I came across this nice video of James Hill playing a song named “One Note Samba”.

A very good performance by James, so I thought I’d share it with you all. Take some time to watch it below:

Fumiya Fujii – Shimokita Ijou Harajuku Miman
10
Sep

I came across this nice song when I was watching a Japanese Drama series named “Shimokita Sundays”. Somehow the tune just caught my attention, and I’ve been trying to figure out how to play it on the ukulele. Making good progress at the moment, so stay tuned for the video/audio recording.

As for the song, take a listen at it here:

Jake Shimabukuro – Touch
8
Sep

Hi people,

I’ve decided not to upload video this time around. Instead, I’m trying to do some audio recording.
Here’s a recording of Jake’s Touch. I like this song a lot, but somehow I can’t seem to play it gently enough like he does.

Life’s full of challenges, ain’t it?

And here’s the recording clip:
I recorded it on my digital camera, extracted the audio and added some reverb and compression to it from SONAR.

ICHIGO ICHIE LIVE 2007
8
Sep

I was surfing YouTube the few days back and I stumbled across a Japanese guy with the nickname artkazu8, who has various musicians’ live performance videos in his upload list. And Jake was one of them!

The concert name was ジェイク　シマブクロ ／一期一会　ICHIGO ICHIE LIVE 2007. This is after quite some time, whereby I have seen Jake play life with a full band behind him.

I could recognise a few songs, such as First Love by Utada Hikaru and サボテ ンの花 (I first saw him play this song on a Japanese live morning show on YouTube).

Take some time to watch the videos of the concert below. (Thanks artkazu8~!)

雪の華
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9kRKp_yEhY

First Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbu01WuasJ0

ロビン ソン
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn0kn2Hnh7I

I Love You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3EsFO3aU-Q

Sweet Memories
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT76xl0t53M

見上げ てごらん夜の星
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs8EB11rIwI

さよな ら
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD_G7Xvfun0

秋桜
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbiBf3OYnBU

オリビ アを聞きながら
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJHQyRC9OlY

卒業写 真
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzPfPq4NgrA

時の過 ぎゆくままに
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2VNiU_zyRw

サボテ ンの花
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH0CnYhW24c

Jake Shimabukuro’s Fanclub Package
8
Sep

I recently received my Jake Shimabukuro fan club package!

I signed up with the fan club (JKLUB) on 8th August 2008, and the staff were busy with trying to get ready the packages for mass sending out to those who’ve signed up. Hence, the slight delay.

Here are the goodies~ (except for the Gently Weeps CD… I bought that.)

The current fanclub’s T-shirt has ran out of M sizes. If I chose to want the current T-shirt design, I would have to wait for the next batch. So I chose to take a M sized T-shirt of an old design of JKLUB. The staff were kind enough to compensated me with a JKLUB hand towel.

The package includes a DVD, containing a message from Jake himself, as part of the fan club member greeting. Also, there is a Gently Weeps CD poster, with a Thank You message and autographed by Jake. Finally, there is an ID card, stating the date of signing up with JKLUB.

Cool stuff! My only disappointment was that the poster was rather creased, due to the handling of the package by the local postman. I guess I’ll just have to make do~

If you wish to sign up for Jake’s fan club, you may do so at http://www.jakeshimabukuro.com/?t=fanclubsignup.

Peace, Love and Ukulele

Jake’s New Album – YEAH
7
Sep

Jake has recently released a new album entitled “YEAH” in Japan!

The album tracks are as follows:

1. My Dream
2. Variation on a Dance
3. Bach Part-Two Invention No.4 in Dm
4. Piano-Forte
5. YHEAH
6. Sunset With You
7. Trapped
8. Five Dollars Unleaded
9. Don’t Break Your Heart
10. Ichigo Ichie
11. Everything Is Better With You
12. Fula girl 2008
13. My Dream -instrumental-

There seem to be some errors in the spellings of the tracks, when I view it from www.amazon.co.jp. I’ll leave it as it is, until I get my copy of the album to verify.

The album can be purchased at this link.