Hiromi is a jazz pianist. She is short and skinny, but her energy during her show is incredible. The last and first time I went to her show was last November at Jazz Bakery, Culver City. Before I went to her show, I listened to her CDs and video clips as many as I could, so I had ideas what she sounds like. But the image I had before the show completely changed after her show.

Hiromi Uehara was born in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, 1979. She started serious jazz study at Berklee School of music when she was 20. She majored in jazz composition and contemporary song writing & production at Berklee. Her style engages with Rock, Jazz, Pop, Japanese traditional music.

At the night I went to her show, I was a little bit late. I almost missed the first song she played. At the box office, I heard the audience’s yelling and cheering which was very unusual at the place. When I step into the hall, the audience was already very excited because Hiromi’s energy was already on the top gear. This could be a sign of unsophisticated musicianship. Most well known musician think about a whole story of their show, so they don’t usually show their 100% energy at the first song of their set. On every song, Hiromi gave her maximum intensity like the best smash by a young muscular tennis player. It seemed like one hour set was not long enough to express her art.

Toward the end of her show, she still played with 100% amazingly. I was getting tired because her music was too “heavy”. Her arrangement was very complicated and engaged with many ideas and concepts which made songs “heavy.” Plus, no relief music playing ended up with being exhaust.


Playing music with 100% intensity for a whole hour is not easy. If she can get a nice tension and release moment into her show, she will be one of the jazz legends in future.