Biography
With three generations between them, pianists Chick Corea and Hiromi Uehera may seem like the “odd couple” for a duet performance. As a teenager in her native Japan, Hiromi had her first opportunity to play with the iconic Corea, sitting next to him on the piano bench. But it was at the 2006 Tokyo Jazz Festival, a decade later, when the two met again for a magical music moment. In the interim Corea had continued to justify his star status, while Hiromi had emerged as a star in her own right, one of the most creative and daring performers and composers of her generation, a protégé of Oscar Peterson and Ahmad Jamal. The Tokyo experience spurred Corea to suggest a live recording as a duo.
This two-CD set documents their three nights of live interplay at the Blue Note Tokyo. The repertoire varies from covers of Bill Evans, Gershwin, Monk and Jobim to original compositions from the two pianists. If you have followed Hiromi’s meteoric rise since her first Telarc release, you surely have encountered sparks of the maturing artist that explode in this context. Away from the temptations of electronica that have infused, if sometimes confused, her most recent quartet adventures, Hiromi is nothing short of technically brilliant and emotionally unrestrained, and Corea seems rejuvenated by her presence. Favorite tracks? The angular pranks of Monk’s “Bolivar Blues,” the delicate cascades of Evans’ “Very Early,” the classical darkness of Hiromi’s “Old Castle, by the River, in the Middle of a Forest.” And the other nine tracks.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.