Hiromi, Photo by Andrea Canter

At 26, Hiromi Uehara (who professionally is known as just “Hiromi”) is already a veteran recording artist who, with eclectic muses and a creative approach to composition, promises to rewrite the canon of modern jazz piano. Her 2003 Telarc debut, Another Mind (2003), won the Recording Industry Association of Japan's (RIAJ) "Jazz Album of the Year" Award, and was praised by the Los Angeles Times for its tendency to "vibrate and surge with the non-stop sensory stimulation of the ginza, with busy bass lines and crisply dissonant harmonies."

Brain (2004) quickly followed, showcasing one of the most daring and creative voices of her generation, or perhaps of any working generation in jazz today. Indeed, Brain received Swing Journal's "New Star Award," Jazz Life's "Gold Album," HMV Japan's "Best Japanese Jazz Album," the Surround 2004 Horizon Award, the Japan Music Pen Club's "Japanese Artist Award," and recently, Swing’s “Album of the Year” in its 2005 Readers’ Poll. Noted her mentor (and co-producer of Another Mind), Ahmad Jamal, "Hiromi is changing the musical landscape. Her music, charm, and spirit let her soar to unimaginable heights. She is nothing short of amazing." Sprial, again on Telarc, officially set for release on January 17, continues her amazing discography.

Hiromi began piano studies at age 5 in her native Shizuoka, Japan. Her music education included both classical and jazz. "I was playing classical music with swing and voicings,” she said. “I did it with Mozart and Beethoven. All my compositions from the age of six were not just classical music. It was contemporary classical, mixed with jazz." By age 12, she was performing in public, and at 14 performed with the Czech Philharmonic. At 17, she performed with Chick Corea, and shortly thereafter moved to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music. Her early mentors included Oscar Peterson and Ahmad Jamal, but true to her generation, Hiromi integrates elements of current rock and pop—always with an underlying foundation of high-flying improvisation: "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."

Tony Gray, Photo by Andrea Canter

I’ve had the opportunity to see Hiromi live three times in the past two years, each performance reinforcing the praise of her mentors and the accolades of the international media. Her dynamic range, percussive attack, and creative compositions echo the wild playfulness of the Bad Plus as much as the sophisticated complexities of Tyner, Jamal, and Jarrett. Each recording offers a sonic feast highlighting the pianist’s far-flung compositional ideas, live, in-studio productions free of overdubs and multi-track wizardry, with the immediacy of in-the-moment improvisation. Hiromi’s partners on Brain and now Sprial are her fellow Berkelee alums Tony Grey (bass) and Martin Valihora (drums), who, despite their talents, often seem superfluous in the context of the pianist’s uncanny evocation of all three instruments on her own.

Particularly following the scrumptious diversity of Brain, one had to wonder which of many directions Hiromi would go next, or perhaps how she could continue to explore so many ideas without losing her way. Spiral is the answer as well as the apt description of the structure of these eight compositions. Again Hiromi proves that she is an endless well of original musical ideas that range from the eerily bizarre (“Return of Kung Foo World Champion”) to the bluesy eccentric (“Love and Laughter”) to the classically lyrical (“Old Castle by the River in the Middle of a Forest”).

The title tune, “Spiral,” opens the set with a very soft beginning that builds to a Romantic tinged concerto that simultaneously evokes Ethan Iverson (The Bad Plus) and Rachmaninoff. The darkly evolving melody builds toward a brighter segment. As she will repeat throughout the recording, Hiromi makes extensive use of a strong left hand to create her own basslines, in tandem or counterpoint to Grey’s electric bass. On “Spiral” she also creates string-like wails with the electronic keyboard to support Grey’s furious leading lines. True to the tune title, this track spirals as it shifts from electronic to acoustic keyboard, the latter creating a majestic lyricism that holds all components together. Valihora’s drums become a more prominent force as the spiral spins to an abrupt finish.

Martin Vilhora, Photo by Andrea Canter

Four compositions form the “Music for Three-Piece Orchestra” which is substantially informed by Hiromi’s classical training. “Open Door” begins like a Chopin nocturne, with all the melodic and filagree lines of a great romantic composer. Tony Grey comes in with a mournful line of his own, playing under the piano and giving the composition a darkly dramatic tone, forboding at first, then shifting to a more majestic attitude. On “Déjà vu,” an upbeat rhythm recedes into a balladic bass solo, accented by soft and tinkling clusters from the acoustic piano. Repeated phrases from both piano and bass are set off by deep drum accents and lightly touched cymbals. In her liner notes, Hiromi says that “One goes on a journey inside…” , and with her abstract improvisation, the pianist retraces her steps yet never quite covers the same path twice, often running counter to the bass. “Reverse” has the feel of a commuter train moving along in one direction, then slowing, reversing gears, reconsidering its destination. The gears move with great precision and legato agility. The final movement of the suite, “Edge” includes a long-running, repetitive motif that particularly engages the trapset while the keyboard pushes the melody forward, finally to the forefront. “Welcome back to reality,” explains Hiromi.

Hiromi, Photo by Andrea Canter

And beyond the world of music, life itself seems to offer Hiromi Uehara nonstop inspiration. As on her previous outings, as performer, composer, and ensemble leader, Hiromi turns time and melody inside-out, demonstrating that classically exquisite lyricism and electronically combustive adventure can spring up, like the Big Bang, from one inventive mind, and sustain musical life. With Spiral, Hiromi takes another leap forward, and thankfully takes each listener along for the ride.

Hiromi performs in Washington, DC at Blues Alley, January 12-14(); she will be at the Blue Note in Manhattan, January 17-22 ( www.bluenotejazz.com). “Spiral” will be available at all major music outlets on January 17^th.

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