A native of Shizuoka, Japan, Hiromi Uehara started playing piano at age 5, and enrolled in the Yamaha School of Music at age six. By age 12, she was performing in public, and at 14 performed with the Czech Philharmonic. When she was 17, she met Chick Corea in Tokyo: "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."

Hiromi was immersed in classical and jazz through her earliest teachers and throughout her training, which culminated in her enrollment at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. An early influence was Oscar Peterson, with whom she was ultimately connected through Yamaha and who has been a significant supporter. Ahmad Jamal has overseen her recent career and was co-producer of her first recording. "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."

And “big, big energy” is an apt description of Hiromi’s approach to the keyboard. Those who saw her performance at the Dakota last year were blown away by her dynamic range, percussive attack, and creative compositions that echo the wild playfulness of the Bad Plus as much as the sophisticated complexities of Tyner, Jamal and Jarrett.