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Links: www.hiromimusic.com

Style: Jazz/Classical
Origin: Japan
Touring party: 4
Territory: Europe except I, F, E in coop Ellora
Availability: April/May + Summer 2012

HIROMI RELEASED HER NEW CD " THE VOICE" IN JUNE 2011 FEATURING HER TRIO PROJECT

Hiromi on acoustic piano
Simon Phillips on drums
Anthony Jackson on bass

Pianist Hiromi’s latest recording Voice, is a trio effort featuring Anthony Jackson on bass and Simon Phillips on drums backing some very inspired compositions by Hiromi. The over the top musical dynamics of this particular trio more than complement the compositional genre jumping within the writing, a musically and matured progressive approach given to these contemporary (in the best sense of the word) tracks.

She mentions that she was happy to finally do an entire CD with Anthony, and the eloquence of that musical partnership can be heard, felt, and deeply experienced. Jackson onec again brings his signature individuality to this session musically blending groove, melody, and counterpoint to each track in his on inimitable way…unmistakably the Jackson approach. Phillips musically blends right in to give us that “this trio has been playing for years” vibe.

Hiromi’s wonderful playing and composing combined with this stellar rhythm section lets us know that the traditional piano trio in the right hands is still alive and well in the 21^st century. (Jake Kot)

Hiromi Uehara, the pint-size piano dynamo who performs under her first name, has a penchant for brisk bedazzlement and hyper-articulated drama. That much has been true since she appeared on the radar six or seven years ago at the helm of a neon-lighted fusion band. Since then Hiromi has recently completed her first solo album, a duo album with Chick Corea, playing on Stanley Clark´s album and 2011introduces her newsest trio project featuring such wide ranging musicians as Simon Philips and Anthony Jackson.

Simon Phillips is by far one of theworld's most renowned and respected drummers, whose style not onlyreflects his technical gift but also his distinct musical sensibility.Whether it is Rock, Fusion or Jazz, Simon applies the same precisionand intensity to his drumming, which is never lacking in emotion andfeel.
To date he has toured andrecorded with many bands and artists, including: Mick Jagger, The Who,Jeff Beck, Jack Bruce, Peter Gabriel, Joe Satriani, Tears for Fears,Judas Priest, Roxy Music, Michael Schenker, Nik Kershaw, Phd., AlDiMeola, 801, Pete Townshend, Russ Ballard, Robert Palmer, StanleyClarke, The Pretenders, Jon Anderson, Whitesnake and Dave Gilmour... toname but a few.

Anthony Jackson has been a distinctive voice on the electric bass ever since he entered the scene in New York City. He has worked with a wide variety of musicians including Chaka Khan, Chick Corea, Billy Cobham, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich, The O´Jays..to name a few.

 

HIROMI IS ALSO AVAILABLE FOR SOLO PERFORMANCES

A Place To Be was released on September 2, 2009, in Japan; January 26, 2010, in the U.S.

If all the world is indeed a stage, pianist-composer Hiromi Uehara has played on just about every corner of it. Since the beginning of the decade, she has supported her impressive body of studio work with an ambitious tour schedule that has electrified audiences throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and elsewhere with performances that have pushed the limits of piano jazz to new frontiers of compositional and technical skills.

Each stop on her journey – be it the world-class metropolis, the quiet college town or something in between – has introduced her to a new and singular vibe that has left an indelible impression on her creative sensibilities. Indeed, she has come away from every new place with just as much as she has brought to it, and perhaps even more.

RELEASE INFO:
Hiromi chronicles just a few of the many places and moments where she has experienced the almost mystical exchange between performer and audience on A Place To Be, her new CD on Telarc International, a division of Concord Music Group. The album, her first solo piano recording, is set for release on September 2, 2009, in Japan, and January 26, 2010, in the U.S.

“I really wanted the record to be a kind of travel journal,” she says. “I’ve traveled so much in the last few years that I’ve started to wonder exactly where is the place that I’m supposed to be. Traveling takes so much out of you. It can be exhausting. But as soon as I go on the stage and I see people who are very happy because of what I’m doing, it just erases all of the struggles and the craziness that can come with all the traveling, and it really fulfills me.”

To Hiromi’s way of thinking, music is something much more than just notes on a scale or a series of black and white keys. Rather, it is a naturally occurring phenomenon to be plucked out of the air, a vibration to be captured and re-transmitted to receptive ears and open hearts. “Some places have such a special vibe,” she says. “Sometimes a melody emerges in and around a place without me having to think about it at all. I can just walk down the street and I hear it. I’m always thinking about composing, and always trying to find what parts of the world around me can be musical. Sometimes it just comes to me in a beautiful moment.”

Several of those beautiful places and moments are captured on A Place To Be. The set gets under way with the frenetic energy of “BQE,” an abbreviation for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The song captures the intensity of what Hiromi describes in her liner notes as the expressway’s “crazy traffic” and “mad fast cars,” but she adds that the attentive motorist can still catch the essence of Manhattan, “a place where reality and dreams exist together.“

“Sicilian Blue” opens with a tug-of-war between fast and slow tempos, then segues into something much more melodic and intriguing. Hiromi recalls the visit to the Mediterranean island that inspired the piece: “When I was walking down the street in Sicily, this melody came to me very naturally, probably because of such a blue sky, blue ocean and beautiful streets.”

The spirited “Bern Baby Bern” is the pianist’s nod to Marian’s Jazzroom, a popular club in Bern, Switzerland, and one of her favorite nightspots when her travels take her to that part of Europe. “There is a small jingle they play when they start the show, and the song is called ‘Bern Baby Bern.’ This is my version of the song, expressing how happy and excited I am to be there.”

She recalls her years as a student at the Berklee College of Music in Boston in “Cape Cod Chips,” a jazzy, freewheeling piece that captures the energy of an up-and-coming musician in her formative years. “I have so many memories of jamming and talking about music with friends all through the night, having Cape Cod Potato Chips on the side,” says Hiromi.

Her take on the well known “Pachelbel’s Canon” employs some intriguing piano effects, and gradually shifts toward something far more syncopated and playful than was ever intended for the original baroque-era piece. The track came about after Hiromi fulfilled a longstanding dream to walk the streets of Germany while listening to the original composition from the late 1600s. “It came true,” she says, “and it was one of those moments so hard to describe into words.”

The three-part “Viva Vegas” suite opens with the boisterous “Show City, Show Girl,” followed by the much more pensive “Daytime in Vegas” and finally “The Gambler,” a high-speed coda that opens at the uppermost end of the keyboard and quickly makes us of everything below it. “One day,” says Hiromi, “I’m hoping to go to Las Vegas to perform this song.”

The melodic title track closes the set with questions for both the musician and the listener. “Everyone is looking for a place to be,” says Hiromi. “Where is mine? Where is yours? I believe life’s like a big journey to find the place to be.”

In addition to being a musical travelogue, A Place To Be also represents a personal milestone for Hiromi, who recorded the album just days before her thirtieth birthday in March 2009. “I wanted to record the sound of my twenties for archival purposes,” she says. “I felt like the people whom I met on the road during my twenties really helped me develop and mature as a musician and as a person. So in addition to making a record that represented all of these places that have inspired my music, I also wanted it to be a thank-you to those people. I feel very fortunate to have spent this part of my life traveling to all these places and making people happy