JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
Rating: 
Hiromi’s pianistic virtuosity cannot be denied. She has the energy of a scalded cat. Her compositions are adventurous, moving between ragtime, funk, fusion, R&B, avant guarde and goodness know what else. She has the wit to hire unconventional accompanists such as Dave Fiucynski, a guitarist who plays an instrument on which he has filed down the frets so that he can play quarter tones. Then why am not more high on her debut, Another Mind?
This is going to sound pretentious and presumptious of me, but I don’t care. Hiromi’s music just doesn’t come off as mature. It’s just not all that deep. And it’s not just that she’s young. There have been plenty of young musicians in the past who have displayed uncanny maturity at a frighteningly young age. One thinks of Miles Davis’ 2nd great quintet, with a 20 year old Tony Williams and a 25 year old Herbie Hancock.
Maybe that’s an unfair expectation for her to measure up to legendary musicians like these. Well, I don’t really expect that, but I have to take the maturity of such young musicians into account when rating Hiromi’s music.
Does that mean I don’t think Another Mind is any good? Not at all. It’s a heck of a lot of fun.
XYZ starts off the date with a bang, with stop and go themes which turn on a dime, all sorts of complex rhythmic patterns which Hiromi negotiates with effortless ease, furious displays of single note runs over odd meter patterns — it’s a virtual chopfest. It also shows off her artistic restlessness and arranging ability.
Double Personality is even more playful. A busy rhythmic pattern on piano ends with a little humorous grace note from guitarist Fiuczynski. After the introduction, we get a brief half time solo from Fiuczynski before the tune mutates into an crazily uptempo funk groove, which Hiromi seems fond of. Then we go into half time again for a more extended Fiuczynski solo. As the solo goes on, the band stealthily doubles the time again while Fiuczynski goes nuts. The theme briefly manifests itself before fading away for a solo from Hiromi, which starts out lyrically before sliding into her trademark manic intensity. At one point, she’s playing barrelhouse piano at a shocking tempo. The band joins in, with the drums playing a backbeat like disco on speed. Tasteless? Maybe. Fun? You bet!
Then we get Summer Rain, which sounds like a slightly more literate version of dreck from Quiet Storm stalwarts like Kenny G. It’s pretty poppy, alright, but you know what? Anyone who can play piano as well as Hiromi is entitled to like sappy music, okay? Who knows, maybe she’ll grow out of it.
Joy is Hiromi’s attempt to play soulfully. To tell you the truth, it sounds a little secondhand to me. She probably just hasn’t lived long enough or hasn’t had enough life experience to truly pull it off. She’s fiercely intelligent, obviously a sweet, thoughtful lady if you read her liner notes, talented as all get out, but she needs experience and seasoning before she can really move me.
In the meantime, I’ll take a tune like 010101 (binary system) any day, with it’s clever slow tempo funk, and chunky piano comping.
Hiromi ends the CD with The Tom and Jerry Show, a lunatic ragtime exercise on solo piano taken at a (of course) breakneck tempo, which really does evoke memories of the classic cartoon.
The lady is just irrepressible. Hiromi’s music has a joyous fun-loving spirit that refuses to take itself too seriously, and if you can’t deal with it, that’s your problem.
