Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Hiromi

There’s a kind of primal pleasure in watching a slight Asian woman systematically manhandle an array of expensive keyboards onstage. That’s one way to describe watching Hiromi — a jazz-fusion pianist — and her unique approach to music. Call it an attack more than a performance; at times she herself seems surprised by the notes that she pounds out. I’m hard-pressed to come up with comparisons. Maybe Art Tatum, maybe Keith Jarrett. Then again, Hiromi’s thing isn’t really straight-ahead jazz. Hers is a blend of complex rhythms and meters that bop around her classical, jazz, and funk interests. You’d be accurate if you called her a keyboard prodigy, but I see her as more of a jazz rock star.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Hiromi Uehara (she prefers to use her first name only) mastered classical piano as a child and graduated to jazz as a teen after meeting with American jazz icon Chick Corea (she performed and later recorded a project with him). After she turned pro, she wrote jingles in order to pay the bills while she developed her own thing. Expressed on a variety of electronic keyboards, synths, and acoustic pianos, Hiromi pelts a listener with a rush of notes, but she once told a reviewer that it all comes down to one note. “The first note I play is like a key of the day of the concert. That’s the very first thing they hear. The whole message and focus needs to be there.”

Hiromi’s fusion is improvisational, for the most part, even though her latest CD is a collection of cover tunes. She notes a disparate crew of influences: Jeff Beck, King Crimson, Ahmad Jamal. “The hardest thing in music is surprising myself,” she told Keyboard magazine. “And I always like to keep surprising myself.”

HIROMI: Anthology, Saturday, June 20, 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. 619-595-0300. $20, $25.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Big swordfish, big marlin, and big money

Trout opener at Santee Lakes
Next Article

Tijuana sewage infects air in South Bay

By September, Imperial Beach’s beach closure broke 1000 consecutive days

There’s a kind of primal pleasure in watching a slight Asian woman systematically manhandle an array of expensive keyboards onstage. That’s one way to describe watching Hiromi — a jazz-fusion pianist — and her unique approach to music. Call it an attack more than a performance; at times she herself seems surprised by the notes that she pounds out. I’m hard-pressed to come up with comparisons. Maybe Art Tatum, maybe Keith Jarrett. Then again, Hiromi’s thing isn’t really straight-ahead jazz. Hers is a blend of complex rhythms and meters that bop around her classical, jazz, and funk interests. You’d be accurate if you called her a keyboard prodigy, but I see her as more of a jazz rock star.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Hiromi Uehara (she prefers to use her first name only) mastered classical piano as a child and graduated to jazz as a teen after meeting with American jazz icon Chick Corea (she performed and later recorded a project with him). After she turned pro, she wrote jingles in order to pay the bills while she developed her own thing. Expressed on a variety of electronic keyboards, synths, and acoustic pianos, Hiromi pelts a listener with a rush of notes, but she once told a reviewer that it all comes down to one note. “The first note I play is like a key of the day of the concert. That’s the very first thing they hear. The whole message and focus needs to be there.”

Hiromi’s fusion is improvisational, for the most part, even though her latest CD is a collection of cover tunes. She notes a disparate crew of influences: Jeff Beck, King Crimson, Ahmad Jamal. “The hardest thing in music is surprising myself,” she told Keyboard magazine. “And I always like to keep surprising myself.”

HIROMI: Anthology, Saturday, June 20, 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. 619-595-0300. $20, $25.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Everything You’ve Ever Wanted To Know About doTERRA

Next Article

Wild Wild Wets, Todo Mundo, Creepy Creeps, Laura Cantrell, Graham Nancarrow

Rock, Latin reggae, and country music in Little Italy, Oceanside, Carlsbad, Harbor Island
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader