Hiromi - Another Mind

Rating 3
Release Date Apr 22, 2003
Recording Date Sep 16, 2002-Sep 18, 2002
Label Telarc
Genre Jazz
Review by Rick Anderson
On the back of the CD case is a photo that is basically a heads-up as to what
you can expect from this debut album by 23-year-old jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara.
She is standing outside wearing a black dress and a strange yellow-and-white
wrap. Her face is turned up to the sky, her eyes and mouth closed, her jaw
clenched; her arms are held straight down by her sides with her fingers splayed
wide. It's a stance that bespeaks intense energy and a certain defiance. Most of
the music contained in the CD seems to have been made in a similar attitude, for
better and, occasionally, for worse. Uehara plays with an almost demonic energy
and amazing stamina; on a program that consists entirely of original
compositions, most of them delivered in a standard piano trio format, she zips
from style to style with a sense of urgency that borders at times on the manic.
Her propulsive "XYZ" opens the album with churning intensity; "Double
Personality" finds her alternating between nearly harmolodic free improvisation
and carefully composed modern jazz; "Joy" offers a gentle breath of fresh air
before she resumes her headlong musical charge. The album ends with a bonus
track, an unaccompanied piano piece called "The Tom and Jerry Show," which
alternates between loopy, Carl Stalling-esque avant-gardism and high-speed
ragtime. By the end of this album you'll be tired, but it's a good tired. Heaven
only knows what her next album will sound like, but the laws of physics would
seem to dictate that she'll have to slow down a bit.
1 - Xyz - Uehara - 5:37
2 - Double Personality - Uehara - 11:57
3 - Summer Rain - Uehara - 6:07
4 - Joy - Uehara - 8:29
5 - 010101 (Binary System) - Uehara - 8:23
6 - Truth and Lies - Uehara - 7:20
7 - Dancando No Paraiso - Uehara - 7:39
8 - Another Mind - Uehara - 8:44
9 - The Tom and Jerry Show - Uehara - 6:05
Anthony Jackson - Bass
Dave Dicenso - Drums
David Fiuczynski - Guitar
Hiromi Uehara - Piano, Keyboards
Jim Odgren - Sax (Alto)
Mitch Cohn - Bass