Over the course of the past 15 years, Jake Shimabukuro has challenged and changed all notions of what was possible with a ukulele. But on his latest album, Trio, the acclaimed musician begins a bold and exciting new chapter in his already remarkable career. Unlike previous releases on which Shimabukuro sometimes utilized studio musicians recording songs he’d already written, Trio is radically different: It’s a true band album. The only sounds on the record are performed by himself, bassist Nolan Verner and guitarist Dave Preston, and many of the songs were composed spontaneously in the studio. In this way, Trio lives up to its title as a fully immersive document of the sonic alchemy the three musicians achieve on stage. “I really wanted to capture the sound that we make when we jam together,” Shimabukuro explains. “We get into this amazing improvisational zone at soundchecks: Nolan will play a cool bassline, and Dave will chime in with these incredible guitar parts. Then I’ll come in right after and play melodies to what they’re doing. So I finally said, ‘We should just go into the studio, hit ‘record’ and see what happens. It would be an experiment, but I had a feeling that great things would come from it
