Jake Shimabukuro brings the ukulele back to the Newmark after Thanksgiving

Three years after his last Portland stop, the Hawaiian ukulele virtuoso returns to the Newmark Theatre on Monday, Nov. 30, with a blues record made alongside Mick Fleetwood now in the catalog.

The Monday after Thanksgiving is usually a write-off: leftovers gone, inbox full, nobody's idea of a night out. This year Portland has a reason to put on real shoes.

Jake Shimabukuro plays the Newmark Theatre on Monday, Nov. 30, at 7 p.m., with tickets through Portland'5 Centers for the Arts. The show was announced Oct. 28, and it's his first Portland date since Nov. 18, 2023, when he played the same room.

A lot has happened to Shimabukuro's catalog since that night. In the fall of 2024 he released *Blues Experience*, a record that teamed him with Fleetwood Mac co-founder and drummer Mick Fleetwood, and he took it on the road through 2025. NPR's Here & Now caught up with him on that run in July 2025, in a conversation that public stations from WBUR to Hawaii Public Radio carried under the headline "Ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro takes his album 'Blues Experience' on tour." That's the change worth noting for anyone who last saw him in 2023: the four-string instrument most people associate with luaus and beginner chord charts, bent hard toward the blues.

He hasn't left home behind, either. Earlier this year he was out on a "Tradewinds & Rainbows" tour with Henry Kapono as a very special guest, according to Mesa Arts Center, which hosted a stop in June. Between the blues record and the Hawaiian bill, it's been a busy stretch, and the Newmark show lands at the tail end of it.

If you've never seen him, the appeal is easy to explain and hard to believe until you're in the seat. One small instrument, played with the kind of speed, dynamics and attack people usually reserve for electric guitar, and a performer who clearly enjoys watching a theater full of adults realize what a ukulele can do. The Newmark is the right size for that kind of evening. At roughly 870 seats it's intimate enough to hear the fingerwork and big enough to feel like an occasion.

It's also a room he clearly likes; this is the second straight Portland visit he's routed through it. That counts for something on a Monday. A 7 p.m. start means you're home at a reasonable hour, and the downtown location keeps it simple whether you're coming off the MAX or driving in.

Why does a three-year gap matter? For a touring instrumentalist, that's a whole record cycle, and in this case a pretty radical one. The crowd that saw him in 2023 heard a different player than the one arriving in 2026, at least on paper. The best way to find out how much the blues rubbed off is to show up.

Ticket details are at the Portland'5 link above. Bring someone who still thinks the ukulele is a novelty. It's more fun to watch them change their mind than to change your own.

Sources: Ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro takes his album 'Blues Experience' on tour — Here & Now / WBUR (wbur.org); Ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro takes his album 'Blues Experience' on tour — Hawaii Public Radio (hawaiipublicradio.org); Ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro takes his album 'Blues Experience' on tour — NEPM (nepm.org); Jake Shimabukuro's Tradewinds & Rainbows Tour — Mesa Arts Center (mesaartscenter.com); Newmark Theatre — Portland'5 Centers for the Arts (pcpa.com)