titled Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings. The film won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Ashland Independent Film Festival, the Audience Award for Best Documentary Film and the Best Editor award at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, the Honorable Mention for Best Documentary Feature at the Urbanworld Film Festival, and the Best Medium Length/Essay Award at the DocuWest International Documentary Film Festival. The film aired nationally on PBS in May 2013. It was released on DVD July 2013. On February 14, 2020, Shimabukuro released his album Trio through Music Theories Recordings, which landed at No. 1 on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. That same year Shimabukuro announced his latest studio project, Jake & Friends, but its release was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On September 9th, 2021, he released the first two songs from the album: "Two High" with Moon Taxi, and "Stardust" with Willie Nelson. The full album was released on November 12, 2021, and also features collaborations with Bette Midler, Warren Haynes, and more. On June 23, 2021, Shimabukuro was nominated by president Joe Biden to be a Member of the National Council on the Arts. Media appearances Shimabukuro has appeared and performed in a number of media outlets, including Late Night with Conan O'Brien (2005, 2008), Jimmy Kimmel Live! (twice in 2011), Last Call With Carson Daly (2007), The Today Show (2013), Musicians@Google, and several TED conferences including TED2010, TEDxSanDiego, TEDxTokyo, TEDxHongKong, and TEDxHonolulu. He has been featured on A Prairie Home Companion, NPR’s Morning Edition and World Cafe, Public Radio International’s The World, Whad'Ya Know?, PRX's Echoes, and The Bob Edwards Show on XM Satellite Radio. Shimabukuro was featured on the January 15, 2012, episode of CNN's The Next List. In March 2012 the documentary by Tadashi Nakamura on his life and career was released, Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings, and it subsequently aired repeatedly on PBS. Instruments Shimabukuro plays a custom-made 4 string tenor ukulele from Kamaka Ukulele. Early in his career he experimented with the use of effect pedals, but for the last eight years has relied on the natural sounds of the ukulele and avoided sound manipulation. For his Grand Ukulele Tour, he has added the use of a couple of effects pedals to his show. One of them is used to take a sound sample that he loops and accompanies. Charity Shimabukuro was for many