Hiromi -- piano
Tony Grey -- bass
Martin Valihora -- drums
special guest David “Fuze” Fiuczynski
Influences
“I love Bach, I love Oscar Peterson, I love Franz Liszt, I love Ahmad Jamal,” she says. “I also love people like Sly and the Family Stone, Dream Theatre and King Crimson. Also, I’m so much inspired by sports players like Carl Lewis and Michael Jordan. Basically, I’m inspired by anyone who has big, big energy. They really come straight to my heart.” --Hiromi
Sounds Like
But few Japanese jazz pianists are as strikingly original, either as composers or performers, as Hiromi Uehara, who performs under her first name only. She has an instantly recognizable style, featuring a dense flurry of notes and chords that recalls Art Tatumwho, not surprisingly, is one of her idols. -- Billboard "Artist To Watch"
Among those artists currently reinventing the jazz piano triosuch as E.S.T and The Bad PlusHiromi is rapidly moving to the forefront...Hiromi practices an art of surprise, touching on video-game tempos and Bill Evans harmonies as she arranges tradition and novelty in fresh configurations. -- Amazon.com
[Hiromis] solos flow like water and demonstrate classical chops harnessed to a fierce energy. The title tracks many facets range from a gentle, tuneful passage to a merry-go-round on growth hormones. Bassist Tony Grey, drummer Martin Valihora, and bassist Anthony Jackson provide simpatico backing for the Hiromi tsunami. -- Philadelphia Inquirer
Hiromis loving energetic character seeps into your skin while listening, and its rather a refreshing experience. There is a blasting beaming ray of light filtering through this artistic young talent. Listen to it speak! -- The Female Musician
HIROMI'S SONICBLOOM: TIME CONTROL - NOW ON ITUNES!!!
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Hiromi Uehara first mesmerized the jazz community with her 2003 Telarc debut, Another Mind. The buzz started by her first album spread all the way back to her native Japan, where Another Mind shipped gold (100,000 units) and received the Recording Industry Association of Japan’s (RIAJ) Jazz Album of the Year Award. The keyboardist/ composer’s second release, Brain, won the Horizon Award at the 2004 Surround Music Awards, Swing Journal’s New Star Award, Jazz Life’s Gold Album, HMV Japan’s Best Japanese Jazz Album, and the Japan Music Pen Club’s Japanese Artist Award (the JMPC is a classical/jazz journalists club). Brain was also named Album of the Year in Swing Journal’s 2005 Readers Poll. In 2006, Hiromi won Best Jazz Act at the Boston Music Awards and the Guinness Jazz Festival’s Rising Star Award. She also claimed Jazzman of the Year, Pianist of the Year and Album of the Year in Swing Journal Japan’s Readers Poll for her 2006 release, Spiral. Hiromi continues her winning streak with the 2007 release of Time Control.
Born in Shizuoka, Japan, in 1979, Hiromi took her first piano lessons at age six. She learned from her earliest teacher to tap into the intuitive as well as the technical aspects of music.
“Her energy was always so high, and she was so emotional,” Hiromi says of her first piano teacher. “When she wanted me to play with a certain kind of dynamics, she wouldn’t say it with technical terms. If the piece was something passionate, she would say, ‘Play red.’ Or if it was something mellow, she would say, ‘Play blue.’ I could really play from my heart that way, and not just from my ears.”
Hiromi took that intuitive approach a step further when she enrolled in the Yamaha School of Music less then a year after her first piano lessons. By age 12, she was performing in public, sometimes with very high-profile orchestras. “When I was 14, I went to Czechoslovakia and played with the Czech Philharmonic,” she says. “That was a great experience, to play with such a professional orchestra.”
Further into her teens, her tastes expanded to include jazz as well as classical music. A chance meeting with Chick Corea when she was 17 led to a performance with the well-known jazz pianist the very next day.
“It was in Tokyo,” Hiromi recalls. “He was doing something at Yamaha, and I was visiting Tokyo at the time to take some lessons. I talked to some teachers and said that I really wanted to see him. I sat down with him, and he said ‘Play something.’ So I played something, and then he said, ‘Can you improvise?’ I told him I could, and we did some two-piano improvisations. Then he asked me if I was free the next day. I told him I was, and he said, ‘Well, I have a concert tomorrow. Why don’t you come?’ So I went there, and he called my name at the end of the concert, and we did some improvisations together.”
After a couple years of writing advertising jingles for Nissan and a few other high-profile Japanese companies, Hiromi came to the United States in 1999 to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. For as open as her musical sensibilities had already been when she came to the U.S., the Berklee experience pushed her envelope even further.
“It expanded so much the way I see music,” she says. “Some people dig jazz, some people dig classical music, some people dig rock. Everyone is so concerned about who they like. They always say, ‘This guy is the best,’ ‘No, this guy is the best.’ But I think everyone is great. I really don’t have barriers to any type of music. I could listen to everything from metal to classical music to anything else.”
Among her mentors at Berklee was veteran jazz bassist Richard Evans, who teaches arranging and orchestration. Evans co-produced Another Mind, her Telarc debut, with longtime friend and collaborator Ahmad Jamal, who has also taken a personal interest in Hiromi’s artistic development. “She is nothing short of amazing,” says Jamal. “Her music, together with her overwhelming charm and spirit, causes her to soar to unimaginable musical heights.”
At 26, Hiromi stands at the threshold of limitless possibility, constantly drawing inspiration from virtually everyone and everything around her. Her list of influences, like her music itself, is boundless. “I love Bach, I love Oscar Peterson, I love Franz Liszt, I love Ahmad Jamal,” she says. “I also love people like Sly and the Family Stone, Dream Theatre and King Crimson. Also, I’m so much inspired by sports players like Carl Lewis and Michael Jordan. Basically, I’m inspired by anyone who has big, big energy. They really come straight to my heart.”
But she won’t, as a matter of principle, put labels on her music. She’ll continue to follow whatever moves her, and leave the definitions to others.
“I don’t want to put a name on my music,” she says. “Other people can put a name on what I do. It’s just the union of what I’ve been listening to and what I’ve been learning. It has some elements of classical music, it has some rock, it has some jazz, but I don’t want to give it a name.”
Thank you Hiromi for you and the band's amazing performance at San Javier last night. Great occasion and atmosphere in the open air and it was a privilege to meet you and exchange a few words afterwards since this was fulfilling one of my ambitions. I wish you every success for the rest of the year and for the future and just keep in mind that you are my MySpace no.1. Roy
Hi Hiromi, thank you for add me. Your music is amazing!!! I hope you will have the chance to listen some samples of my first album 48 Hour Odyssey just released. Have a good weekend. Ciao. Enrico
NEW SONG, NEW BLOG, NEW FRIENDS EVERY MONTH JULIO - JULY
hola chic@s Cada mes hacemos una entrega en nuestro myspace que consta de un tema nuevo, un blog nuevo con varias secciones, en amigos destacados un monográfico de uno o varios grupos y un álbum de fotos nuevas, todo ello relacionado con la canción que presentamos. Esperamos que os guste.
JULIO 2008 Este mes os ofrecemos: nueva canción: "el marinero y la puta" "el marinero y la puta(versión acústica)" "2079(lila dj ça)"(a partir del 7 de julio) nuevo blog: -relatos musicales: "delirium" -pensamientos de "el marinero y la puta" -reflexiones: "¿el deseo de soledad?" nuevos amigos: -monográfico: Argentina nuevas fotos: -álbum "sentadita en el puerto"
I'm happy to announce my new cd MOONSTRUCK, a collaboration with Jan Bang, Arve Henriksen, Tilmann Dehnhard, Ulrike Haage, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Alejandro Govea Zappino, Jan Krause, Susanna and the Magical Orchestra a.o. You're welcome to enjoy, bb
Your music helps me live in harmony with all living beings. It puts me to tears when I need the rush of being alive. I want to know you like I know your music
Your music helps me live in harmony with all living beings. It puts me to tears when I need the rush of being alive. I want to know you like I know your music
You sounded awesome at the festival yesterday (I played in Rashied's group) Anyway, I didn't get a chance to say hi, so I just wanted to say it was FUN hearing you! Take care
Please Come to Ohio or Indiana! There's a bunch of cities you could play at that I woud be willing to drive to. Cincinati, Columbus, Toledo, Indianapolis, Cleveland, even Detroit michigan.
Hey Hiromi...!!! ~LOVE~ your toneful expression..!! I saw Eric Bibb in Austin, SXSW Music Fest. You should come out! It's held in March, annually. South by Southwest Rules...!!!!
Have an Awesome day & keep the Great stuff coming...! =)
I admire your talent! saw you a few times in NYC, you are fantastic! have a great summer and come visit any time, always a pleasure! music from upcoming CD is on myspace now, album will be in stores in Us, Canada & Asia this fall. With love, PolinaJ (your big fan!)