CD review: ”Time Control”
By: Jenifer Dravilas
Artist: Hiromi Uehara
Reviewer: Jenifer Dravillas
One could make the argument that Japanese keyboardist Hiromi Uehara is not just a musician but a painter of sound. Defying categorization, Hiromi is an extremely innovative, creative, and emotive musician who readily admits to seeing colors and visualizations when she composes her music. And this talent is most vividly displayed on her 4th CD for Telarc, “Time Control.”
“Time Control” contains 9 very energetic and colorful original compositions by this self-proclaimed risk taker of an artist who felt inspired by the concept of time and the role it plays on her hectic, time demanding, jet lagged life. Never satisfied with just the status quo or the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, Hiromi decided to invite a 4th musician to fuse with her fiery trio on this 4th CD and just see what happens. And this “wild card” of a musician, iconoclastic and prolific jazz rock guitarist Dave “FUZE” Fiuczynski (best known as the leader of the Screaming Headless Torsos), seemed to be just the right catalyst to cause Hiromi and her trio to take yet another musical path less traveled, and it has made all the difference.
Renamed “Hiromi’s Sonicbloom”, with Hiromi on piano and keyboards, Tony Grey on bass, Martin Valihora on drums, and the aforementioned “FUZE” on fretted and fretless guitar, this group’s resulting dynamics on this CD has produced a very high energy, explosive musical journey that keeps the listener anticipating which direction the notes will go next. Track after track is filled with one surprise after another, underscoring just how talented and capable all four of these musicians are in being able to communicate with each other at a moment’s notice. And to those listeners who thrive on progressive music, this CD is a pure delight.
The opening tune, “Time Difference” blissfully highlights the fun Hiromi and Dave’s similar chordal instruments must have had in trying to negotiate how best to leave room for each other and yet complement each other’s artistry in order to shine at their brightest tones. Hiromi’s jazz inspired, classically trained piano chops beautifully frames the vibrant strokes of colors splashed by Dave’s guitar on this canvas of progressive sound, with solid backing hues provided by Tony and Martin. Then on the next track, a suddenly groovy, soulful “Time Out’ surprises your senses with Hiromi’s fingers dancing all about the 88’s in blistering solos that would make Art Tatum proud. And the deep emotion and solid piano virtuosity of Hiromi is nothing short of breathtaking on “Deep into the Night” with Dave answering her emotive calls at just the right time. Ah yes, time.
While already the recipient of many jazz awards globally, Hiromi Uehara is a progressive and innovative artist who I believe has just begun to share her musical visions with us. And I eagerly await to hear what she’s inspired to paint for us the next time.
Hiromi Biography
Hiromi Ueharafirst 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 and in 2008, Beyond Standard. Both releases feature Hiromi's super group, Sonic Bloom.
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."