Jake Shimabukuro is profiled in this great article from Mother Jones. Here’s a nice quote from the article:
Growing up, the ukulele was always a respected instrument. It’s a big part of our culture. It wasn’t until I started traveling outside of Hawaii that I realized people didn’t really consider the ukulele to be a real instrument. But I tell people all the time, I don’t take offense. In fact, I embrace that quality of the instrument. I love that people don’t take it seriously because then people aren’t intimidated by it. They aren’t afraid to pick it up and play it. If you were to say to someone who has never played an instrument before, “Why don’t you learn the piano or the violin or the trumpet,” most of the time they would tell you, “Oh no, I’ll never be able to play that. It’s too hard.” But if you mention the ukulele to someone, they’ll say, “Oh, yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun.” I wish that all instruments were looked upon that way.
