2008兩廳院夏日爵士派對：上原廣美爵士四重奏

Hiromi's Sonicbloom - Hiromi Uehara Quartet

基本資料

鋼琴 / 上原廣美

上原廣美以她於2003年為 Telarc 唱片錄製的處女作 [Another Mind] 首度風靡爵士樂壇，這張專輯掀起的風潮轉回到她的日本故鄉，銷售業績長紅，一舉奪下金唱片榮譽 ( 賣出十萬張 ) ，並獲得日本錄音工業協會 ( RIAJ ) 頒發的「年度爵士樂專輯」獎項。她擔任鍵盤手暨作曲的第二張專輯[Brain]則贏得2004年「環效音樂獎」 ( Surround Music Awards ) 的「地平線」獎、Swing Journal 的「新秀」獎、[Jazz Life] 的金專輯、日本 HMV 的「最佳日本爵士樂專輯」及「日本音樂新聞工作者聯誼社 ( Japan Music Pen Club ) 的「日本藝術家」獎 (「日本音樂新聞工作者聯誼社」簡稱 JMPC，乃古典暨爵士樂新聞工作者共同組織的聯誼性社團 ) 。[Brain]這張專輯亦獲得 Swing Journal 2005年讀者票選「年度專輯」。2006年，上原廣美獲得「波士頓音樂獎」的「最佳爵士樂表演」 ( Best Jazz Act ) 獎項、金尼斯爵士音樂節的「樂壇新秀獎」。同時，她還獲頒「年度爵士樂手」及「年度鋼琴手」，並以 [Spiral] 獲得Swing Journal 2006 年讀者票選「年度專輯」。她於2007年發行的[Time Control]上市之後同樣到處奏捷。

1979年出生於日本靜岡的上原廣美六歲開始學習鋼琴演奏，開始學琴一年後，被錄取進入山葉音樂學校就讀。12歲時，她已經能夠作公開演出，她回憶道：「我在14歲那年訪問捷克，與捷克愛樂合作演出，與那樣專業的樂團合作是畢生難忘的經驗。」青少年時期開始接觸爵士樂，從此跨足兩個領域。17歲那年，某個偶然的機會，上原廣美遇見了奇克‧柯瑞亞 ( Chick Corea ) ，第二天她就與這位知名的爵士鋼琴手同台獻藝。

上原廣美回憶道：「那是在東京，他到山葉音樂學校辦事，我正好也到東京去上課。我告訴幾位老師說我想請他指點一下，於是我們就在鋼琴前面坐下來，柯瑞亞說：”彈幾段音樂”，我就照著他的話去作。然後他問我說：”妳會即興演奏嗎？”我的答案是肯定的，我們就用雙鋼琴的方式演奏了一些旋律。緊接著他問我明天有空嗎?當我回答”有呀！”後，柯瑞亞說：”明天我將演出一場，妳來參加吧！”我真的去了，當音樂會進行到最後時，他叫我上台，我們就一道即興演奏了數曲。」

上原廣美於1999年赴美深造，就讀於波士頓柏克里音樂院 ( Berklee College of Music ) 。指導老師包括爵士貝斯手理查‧艾文斯，他教編曲及配器法。艾文斯與同樣關心上原的藝術發展的長期好友兼事業夥伴亞曼德‧賈麥爾 ( Ahmad Jamal ) ，共同製作上原廣美 Telarc唱片錄製的處女作[Another Mind]。賈麥爾說道： 「她隨時都帶給我們驚奇，她的音樂，與她無與倫比的魅力及精神，使她爬升到無法想像的藝術巔峰。」 上原廣美表示：「我不想為我的音樂加上任何名稱，其他人可以隨興幫它們取名。它們只不過是我所聆聽及所學的音樂集合於一，包括一些古典音樂元素、一些搖滾及爵士，我不想為它們取名稱。」

Hiromi Uehara, piano/keyboard

Hiromi Uehara first mesmerized the jazz community with her 2003 Telarc debut, Another Mind. The buzz started by her first album spread all the way back to her native Japan, where Another Mind shipped gold (100,000 units) and received the Recording Industry Association of Japan's (RIAJ) Jazz Album of the Year Award. The keyboardist/composer's second release, Brain, won the Horizon Award at the 2004 Surround Music Awards, Swing Journal's New Star Award, Jazz Life's Gold Album, HMV Japan's Best Japanese Jazz Album, and the Japan Music Pen Club's Japanese Artist Award (the JMPC is a classical/jazz journalists club). Brain was also named Album of the Year in Swing Journal's 2005 Readers Poll. In 2006, Hiromi won Best Jazz Act at the Boston Music Awards and the Guinness Jazz Festival's Rising Star Award. She also claimed Jazzman of the Year, Pianist of the Year and Album of the Year in Swing Journal Japan's Readers Poll for her 2006 release, Spiral. Hiromi continues her winning streak with the 2007 release of Time Control.

Born in Shizuoka, Japan, in 1979, Hiromi took her first piano lessons at age six. She learned from her earliest teacher to tap into the intuitive as well as the technical aspects of music. Hiromi took that intuitive approach a step further when she enrolled in the Yamaha School of Music less then a year after her first piano lessons. By age 12, she was performing in public, sometimes with very high-profile orchestras. ""When I was 14, I went to Czechoslovakia and played with the Czech Philharmonic,"" she says. ""That was a great experience, to play with such a professional orchestra."" Further into her teens, her tastes expanded to include jazz as well as classical music. A chance meeting with Chick Corea when she was 17 led to a performance with the well-known jazz pianist the very next day.

""It was in Tokyo,"" Hiromi recalls. ""He was doing something at Yamaha, and I was visiting Tokyo at the time to take some lessons. I talked to some teachers and said that I really wanted to see him. I sat down with him, and he said 'Play something.' So I played something, and then he said, 'Can you improvise?' I told him I could, and we did some two-piano improvisations. Then he asked me if I was free the next day. I told him I was, and he said, 'Well, I have a concert tomorrow. Why don't you come?' So I went there, and he called my name at the end of the concert, and we did some improvisations together.""

After a couple years of writing advertising jingles for Nissan and a few other high-profile Japanese companies, Hiromi came to the United States in 1999 to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. For as open as her musical sensibilities had already been when she came to the U.S., the Berklee experience pushed her envelope even further.

Among her mentors at Berklee was veteran jazz bassist Richard Evans, who teaches arranging and orchestration. Evans co-produced Another Mind, her Telarc debut, with longtime friend and collaborator Ahmad Jamal, who has also taken a personal interest in Hiromi's artistic development. ""She is nothing short of amazing,"" says Jamal. ""Her music, together with her overwhelming charm and spirit, causes her to soar to unimaginable musical heights.""

Hiromi stands at the threshold of limitless possibility, constantly drawing inspiration from virtually everyone and everything around her. ""I don't want to put a name on my music,"" she says. ""Other people can put a name on what I do. It's just the union of what I've been listening to and what I've been learning. It has some elements of classical music, it has some rock, it has some jazz, but I don't want to give it a name.""

上原廣美爵士四重奏

HIROMI'S SONICBLOOM-Hiromi Uehara Quartet

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