Whygold’s Weekend

Today: Hiromi – Spectrum

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_le1Tz7UaF3MkGhLrZ27FJanWRJ5XdsKkc

Hiromi Uehara(jap. 上原 ひろみ, Uehara Hiromi; born March 26, 1979 in Hamamatsu), stage name Hiromi, is a Japanese jazz pianist.

Hiromi received classical piano lessons since the age of six, and her teacher also encouraged her jazz appreciation. She performed with orchestra for the first time when she was twelve years old. At the age of 14 she played with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. At 17, she met Chick Corea and recorded an improvisation for two pianos with him. After further experience, including composing advertising music for Nissan, she went to the United States in 1999 to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Among her mentors at Berklee College was Richard Evans, who teaches orchestral arrangement. Her debut on the Telarc record label was promoted by Ahmad Jamal. Richard Evans co-produced her first record, which she recorded before graduating, and which reached gold status in Japan in 2003.

Since her second album Brain until 2009, the musician was usually accompanied on tour by Slovak drummer Martin Valihora and British bassist Tony Grey. She knows both musicians from her student days at Berklee. For the albums Time Control and Beyond Standard, she had guitarist David “Fuze” Fiuczynski, known as the bandleader of the group Screaming Headless Torsos, accompany her. In 2009, she also toured with a solo program on the classical grand piano. She has continued to record as a duo with Chick Corea(Duet, 2008) and with Stanley Clarke ‘s trio (with Lenny White, Jazz in the Garden). In recent years, she has played with her newly formed trio, which includes Anthony Jackson and Simon Phillips.

Building on the achievements of George Antheil and Art Tatum, the pianist plays with extreme virtuosity; her compositions alternate between jazz, avant-garde and rock. The musician is considered the
jazz magazine
(3/2009), she is “one of the world’s best and most successful artists in the field of jazz-rock fusion. With her virtuosity, her hair-raising energy and her fun of playing, she brings some freshness to this genre that is actually played to death. Their music is technically very demanding, but the basis is usually easily accessible melodies or electric grooves.”

In 2007, she married Japanese fashion designer Yasuhiro Mihara, at whose fashion show in Paris she performed live that same year.

(Source: Wikipedia)

This musician and her music was brought to my attention by one of my students. I did not know Hiromi until then. From there, I am always grateful to discover new music and (for me) new artists in exchange with colleagues and students.

I think especially the piece “Kaleidoscope” is really the madness.

Have fun listening to this album !

Your Chris Weigold

P.S.: Maybe you enjoy the listening pleasure together with a glass of wine from our “Orchester der Kulturen Edition”.