Hiromi
“The moment I see the audience’s smiles from the stage,
I realize, ‘Oh, this is my place to be’.”
Jazz pianist and composer, Hiromi, burst upon the jazz scene in 2003. Since then, with her masterful technique, energetic live performances, and sensitive and innovative interpretation of sounds, she has continued to charm audiences with every new album. In August, Hiromi returns to New York’s Blue Note to cast another spell on the audience. Just before her performance at Central Park SummerStage, she chatted with Chopsticks NY about her sixth year of summer performances at the Blue Note.
What can we expect at the Blue Note this summer? What’s new compared to your previous engagements over the past five years?
It will be a week of solo piano performances. It’s the first time I’m doing this at the Blue Note, and this kind of project is rarely programmed, so I’d like to express the pleasure and possibility of the piano. I’d like to make listeners wonder, “Does this really come from one single piano?” That kind of sound is what I want to deliver to the listeners.
You once said, “A piano can be a drum, bass, et cetera” –– is this project related to that statement?
Yes. The piano is an instrument that can create various sounds like an orchestra. I will make full use of the piano in these live performances.
You have done solo performances in many other venues. How are the audience reactions?
It depends on the situation –– whether I’m playing at a jazz club, an outdoor stage, et cetera. In New York, for example, outdoor festivals like SummerStage in Central Park, where I will perform today, are filled with open-minded energy, so voices naturally come out of me. If I’m at a club, I focus more. Concert halls like Carnegie, on the other hand, require a different kind of concentration. The complete silence the very moment I stand on the stage awes me. Since it’s a classic concert hall, the audience has the kind of attention like “We won’t miss any sound.” At clubs, audiences sip liquor in a more relaxed environment, but the environment still creates a certain tension to concentrate on the music. Since the stage and audience are close there, I think, more than any other setting, a jazz club is full of the feeling that a performer and audience can create music together.
Do you respond to audience reactions sometimes?
Yes. Especially because the music I play mainly deals with improvisation, so my condition that day and the condition of the audience come into play. It’s like I go to grab what can be produced only on that day.
In your performance at the Blue Note, will you mainly play the tunes from your latest album, Place To Be?
Yes, I will.
Many of the titles of the songs on the album contain the names of places. Would you share the sentiment behind this?
I literally travel around the world all year round, and my life is full of wonderful “meetings” with places and people. Every time I arrive at a town I’ve never been before and meet audiences and promoters, it usually starts from the very beginning, like exchanging the greetings, “How do you do?” and “Nice to see you,” but by the time I have to leave the town, we have become so close that they eagerly ask me to come back. It’s really like Tora-san [the kind-hearted vagabond and protagonist in the long-running Japanese film series Otoko wa Tsurai Yo]. [laughs] So, I wanted to show my gratitude to the people who gave me places to be.
Throughout my life touring around the world and sleeping on different beds all the time, I often ask myself, “Where is my place to be?” But the moment I see the audience’s smiles from the stage, I realize, “Oh, this is my place to be.” So, the place where a person belongs can’t be made by oneself but is made with other people, I think. That’s what I’d like to convey with this album.
While you were recording Place To Be, you mentioned that the sound that you produce in your thirties would be different from the one that you produced in your twenties. Now that you are thirty-one, do you find any difference?
Well, I feel I can explain that only by using sound. The sound that I can produce is transforming for sure, but that is not always perceived in a short span like one month or one year. Just like a person growing up, it is more natural to think “I thought like that at the time –– I was young then” than “I thought like that last year, but now I think like this.” It is easier to see how people grow up and change decade by decade. The same can be said for sound, too. This is why I wanted to record the sound of my twenties. I’ve been playing piano since I was six years old, and the piano is my best partner and my best friend. I wanted to document how I face it one-on-one especially because solo piano is the form that reflects me like a mirror.
In a way, it’s scary.
Yes. There are no band members who support me. It’s as if I’m climbing mountains by myself with a rope. It is risky and a big challenge, but the bigger the challenge is, the more bliss I feel the moment I make it through.
Sounds exciting. I’ve noticed that your sound always embraces positive energy. Does that reflect your personality?
I guess so. I get wound up every time I find a big issue in front of me that I have to overcome.
Though you play throughout the world, New York City is one of your main cities. What kind of energy do you think it gives you?
What I feel most strongly from the city is the extremely high energy level. Many people from various countries converge on this city to grab their dreams –– music, dance, whatever the form is –– and their feelings flood the city. It has a strong power to propel.
It fits you perfectly, then. Is this your favorite city?
Yes. I love it. I like the places where my friends, family, and people who support me live, and I have a lot of friends in New York. Also, I like it because it is a hard working city .
Would you recommend some destinations or things to do in Japan for Chopsticks NY readers who are planning to visit?
I’m originally from Hamamatsu City. It has a nice and warm climate all year round and is a very calm place. Close to the ocean and close to Mt. Fuji. The Hamamatsu Matsuri (Hamamatsu Festival) from May 3 to May 5 is not to be missed. We hold a kite-flying competition on Nakatajima Sakyu (Nakatajima Dune) by Enshu-Nada (the Sea of Enshu) during the festival. We fly huge kites, and the participants try to cut the strings of competitors’ kites. It’s amazing. Also, we light up the whole city and parade the “Goten Yatai” floats on the streets with the happy sounds of flutes, trumpets, drums, and rallying cries of “yaisho, yaisho,” et cetera. I am especially devoted to it because I was a matsuri (festival) kid. It’s an absolutely exciting event, and I highly recommend that you go and see it. You can enjoy onsen springs there, too. The food is also good –– green tea, eels, clementines –– they are all famous.
——— Interview by Noriko Komura
Hiromi Born in 1979 in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka, Japan, Hiromi Uehara started playing piano at the age of six and was introduced to jazz at eight. Her talent bloomed early. She played with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at 14, and when she was 17, she met Chick Corea by chance and played with him at his concert. In 1999, she moved to the U.S. to enroll at Berklee College of Music, and even before graduation she had signed with a jazz label, Telarc. Since her debut in 2003, she has toured worldwide and appeared in numerous festivals. In 2010, she performed at the Paris Olympia in April and will tour with the Stanley Clarke Band. Her appearance at the Blue Note New York in August will be the sixth year of her engagement as a featured artist. Her albums include Another Mind (2003), Brain (2004), Spiral (2005), Time Control (2007), Beyond Standard (2008), and Place To Be (2009).
www.hiromimusic.com
Hiromi
@ the Blue Note New York
August 17 to 22,
with sessions at 8 pm and 10 pm.
131 W. 3rd St., New York, NY 10012
TEL: 212-475-8592
Info: www.bluenote.net
B-kyu Gourmet 
