The first (and only) name in jazz piano
Well on her way to joining Duke, Count and others among genre's nobility, Hiromi visits Houston
By ANDREW GILBERT
For The Chronicle
Hiromi knows how to make a first impression.
Leo Boucher
THE NEW FACE OF JAZZ: Hiromi makes her Houston debut at the Menil Collection Dec. 6-7 with her trio, featuring electric bassist Tony Grey and drummer Martin Valihora.
An utterly original improviser and composer, the Japanese-born jazz pianist has emerged in the past few years as one of the most exciting young players on the scene. She makes her Houston debut at the Menil Collection Dec. 6-7 with her trio, featuring electric bassist Tony Grey and drummer Martin Valihora.
Hiromi (her last name is Uehara, but she goes by a single moniker) won her biggest and most consequential fan several years ago, when her orchestration professor at Boston's Berklee College of Music, Richard Evans, played her demo CD over the phone for his close friend Ahmad Jamal. The legendary jazz pianist was immediately struck by her sound and has been championing her ever since.
"I've known most of the greats in my life, from Art Tatum to Teddy Wilson and Errol Garner," Jamal said in a phone interview. "I can tell in a few minutes when there's a great one about to blossom. And she's one of the great pianists."
On the strength of Jamal's recommendation, Hiromi landed a choice gig at the prestigious Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy. She blew away a hall filled with critics and, afterward, Jamal said, "The festival's artistic director, Joe Pignato, came over and shook my hand as if to say, 'She's everything you said she was. She's overwhelming.' "
Jamal also paved the way for Hiromi's relationship with Telarc records, co-producing her thrilling 2003 debut Another Mind with Richard Evans. She followed up last May with the equally commanding Brain, featuring the same trio she brings to Houston.
While the album titles may give the impression that her music is geared more toward the intellect than the heart, Hiromi is a passionate musician who turns each piece into a captivating ride.
Drawing on modern jazz, European classical music, art rock and fusion, she creates kinetic soundscapes in which composed passages segue seamlessly into open-ended improv.
"When my music is written, it's really written, and when the part that's not written comes, it's really very spontaneous, improvisational music," said Hiromi, 25, from her home in Boston.
"I always try to describe what emotions I want. When it's a story-based tune, I write the story and just pass it out to the guys. I want us to be in the same state of mind. It's three different instruments, but I want it to sound like one."
What's most impressive about Hiromi is her self-possessed vision. She is well on the way to creating a cohesive group approach in which no instrument is confined to its traditional role. She plays both piano and a programmable keyboard that provides a range of sounds, from twangy pop to a metallic, Stratocaster guitar wail.
"Sometimes it's got a lead sound to play solos," she said. "Sometimes I want to be a bass player and I try to program a synth bass sound, so Tony can go to his high range and solo, or play melodies. I don't want it to be a piano with two guys as sidemen. I want three pieces of an orchestra."
Hiromi's orchestral orientation may have been what grabbed Jamal's attention. He always refers to his piano, bass and drums group as his small ensemble, detesting the term trio.
"It's limiting," he said. "It's my small orchestra."
At 74, he has been a key figure in jazz for almost half a century, ever since leading a series of popular Chicago-based trios that Miles Davis cited as a seminal influence on his 1950s quintet.
"The thing that inspires me the most about him is his creativity and his passion to never stop creating something new," Hiromi said. "He's amazingly creative — his compositions, his performing style. I can't believe how much passion he has for his music, I feel so much youth in it."
Hiromi and Jamal have established a potent mutual admiration, one that has catapulted her into jazz's international spotlight. Having seized the attention of veteran musicians and savvy jazz fans, Hiromi seems well prepared to hold it.
"She's growing in leaps and bounds," Jamal said. "She not a person who's going to be harnessed by anything but herself."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printsto...inment/2929035
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