Hiromi Uehara

Kirie_Maiden

Kirie_Maiden

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There doesn't seem to be a thread about this fantastic woman so I decided to create one.
Has anybody else heard of the brilliant jazz pianist, Hiromi Uehara?
She has played with other bands and solo, over 170 gigs over the world in one year alone, released 5 albums and has another one the way, and she has been playing since she was 4. What do other people think of her?
 
Spain

I think it's great that someone else in this forum is interested in jazz. I vaguely recall trying to start a jazz thread somewhere but I can't find it now, maybe it's just my fuzzy memory.

Hiromi Uehara is famous among jazz aficionados in Japan, and this is not a small group. Here is a vid of her playing a duet with Chick Corea, improvising on his signature tune, Spain.

Chick Corea and Hiromi Uehara

[youtube]BRU1o-sCnqY&feature=related[/youtube]

Another famous jazz musician is Naoko Terai (jazz violinist). In the following vid, she does her version of Chick Corea's Spain and stays close to the original. Her memorable rendition of Libertango is also worth listening to (a very fast version of Yo-Yo Ma's Libertango), but it's hard to find.

Naoko Terai

[youtube]yyFi4NOEi38&feature=related[/youtube]
 
Wow... such brilliant playing. She's played with Chick Corea a lot, hasn't she?

I saw her on J-Mello on the NHK World channel and she just blew my mind. There was a brilliant piece that I can't seem to find anywhere called BEQ. Have you heard that one?
 
BEQ? I'll have to look out for that, I love jazz piano. Thanks for the suggestion. :-)

She does seem to play with Chick Corea a lot - whenever he's in town. But ticket prices to their shows are really high. :eek:
 
I can imagine. She does shows all over the world though. It's weird that I've never heard of her before. I'm sure she must have been to the UK at some point...
 
GAP Japan

Last weekend, as I was passing a GAP store in Omotesando, I noticed Hiromi's name and picture prominently featured in the window. Inside the store, an interview with her was being shown on the video displays. It turns out, she's GAP Japan's female celebrity model for this Holiday season. :)

Home | Gap

She's in the latter half of this video interview.

Home | Gap
 
Grammy Award

Hiromi is part of the Stanley Clarke Band that won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Album 2010! Way to go, girl! 👍

A bunch of other Japanese artists also got Grammys this year. Cool. 🙂
 
Best Jazz Album

Correction, the Stanley Clarke Band won the Best Jazz Album award. Tak Matsuzaka from B'z won Best Pop Instrumental Album award.
 
I go to Berklee, where Hiromi studied. Seen her play at various venues with various people (solo, with Sonicbloom, at Newport with the new Sonicbloom, as guest artist at Chick Corea's Berklee show last year) - she's really amazing live because of the way she interacts with the audience and the musical references she makes. The only downside is I can't listen to her albums anymore because I get bored too quickly - Hiromi is best experienced live.
 
I would love to see Hiromi live, but I'd have to a lot of saving up to go to Japan. Something tells me she doesn't frequent Manchester much...
 
I just checked out some of her videos on youtube and WOW! After Ray Charles this talented young lady is my favorite piano player. I really enjoyed the video of her performing the piece from the tom and jerry show.
 
That is an excellent video, isn't it? She is an extremely talented lady. :D
 
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