Anthology

Hiromi Uehara’s debut album, Another Mind, sent the jazz community abuzz. Her thrilling recordings won her Japan’s Jazz Album of the Year Award. Her subsequent albums won her many awards including Pianist of the Year and Album of the Year.

Uehara had her first piano lesson at the age of 6 in her native Japan. These early lessons taught her not only the technical aspects of music, but the intuitive as well. Her intuitive approach got her into the Yamaha School of Music less than a year after her first piano lessons. By age 12, she was performing in public, sometimes with high profile orchestras.

Her tastes continued to expand as she entered her teen years and a chance meeting with Chick Corea sparked her love of jazz. After several years of writing jingles for Nissan and other high profile Japanese companies, Uehara came to the United States to study at the Berklee College of Music, which she says forced her to push the envelope of her ability and her tastes. Her influences are varied and include Bach and Sly and the Family Stone. With such diverse taste, Uehara refuses to classify her music: “I don’t want to put a name on my music. Other people can put a name on what I do.”