Brain
It’s a rainy day. Work has been suspended. Power supply is fluctuating. Under normal circumstances, I would be dashing straightway towards my sanctuary - in other words, my home. But since I’m such a idiot for not bringing an umbrella, here I am at the office, updating this stupid blog, waiting for the rain to die down or even somehow mitigate.
Right now, I’m listening to this new album, and thus the purpose of this entry is to give impressions.
Hiromi: Brain
This is my first Hiromi album. I’ve heard many praises for her prior to the purchase; one that stood out the most was from another jazz pianist Marian McPartland, who commended "On a piano competition between the two of us, Hiromi would’ve won." That’s saying quite a lot, when you consider that Marian has made duets with the likes of Bill Evans, Norah Jones, Shirley Horn, and Alice Coltrane.
Hiromi Uehara - her full name - received a full scholarship at Berklee School of Music. She had the opportunity to play with Chick Corea, and Oscar Peterson; and she was under the tutelage of Ahmad Jamal. Yet, it’s not all of these credentials that made me interested in Hiromi. No. What made me notice her was that she is a Japanese. I’ve always been fascinated by Japan culture, but I’ve never had any prior ideas on how a Japanese would perform Jazz, even though I’m very much aware that Japan has a great appreciation to Jazz music, moreso that Philippines and Taiwan.
So how does the album fare? Well, frankly, I’m not done listening to it. I find it hard to get past the first track, which I keep rewinding over and over. The said track, "Kung Fu World Champion" is definitely one of the highlights. If you don’t find it weird that a jazz song have such a wacky name, then surely the psychedelic arrangements will make you leap. In essence, the song is a little bit of Asian, a little bit of Herbie Hancock, amalgamated with a lot of electro-fusion chords and resulting to a very energetic jazz song that would definitely earn Return to Forever’s approval.
[to be continued.]
