Song:XYG
Album:Beyond Standard
Regular readers of this blog are accustomed to my writing about Japanese women who kick ass in the ring or the cage. But Hiromi Uehara kicks ass with her piano and is one of today's top jazz musicians. And she's coming to town so I get to see her in a couple of months. She was born Mar. 26, 1979 in Shizuoka, Japan. She started learning classical piano at age five and her teacher introduced her to jazz at age eight. At age 14 she played with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. A chance encounter with piano legend Chick Corea had her sitting in with him at his Tokyo gig the next day. She studied at Berklee in Boston and was mentored by jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal. She signed with Telarc Records before graduation. Her debut CD Another Mind was released in 2003. She started out with a trio and has recorded with bassist Tony Grey and drummer Martin Valihora since her 2004 CD Brain. Both guys are Berkelee alums. in 2006, she added guitarist David Fiuczynski to form Hiromi's Sonicbloom. The 2008 CD Beyond Standard is their second CD as a unit. It has some standards on it but XYG is a reworking of Hiromi's composition XYZ with added guitar. The bottom line is the girl can play but I can see why she would cause a commotion. Her latest CD Place To Be is solo piano and was released in January and she still tours with Sonicbloom. But she also recorded the CD Jazz In The Garden last year with bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White and is currently on tour with them and will be at the Toronto Jazz Festival in June. I'm going. Here's Hiromi's Sonicbloom performing XYG at the Blue Note in Tokyo 2008.
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