Hiromi began her first set at the Blue Note on Tuesday night with a head fake, unaccompanied at the piano. She was playing an old tune, “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise,” in a vintage stride style: rakish downbeat, rolling tremolos, walking tenths, the whole deal. But then her band clicked into gear, and the song became a new-age dreamscape, gauzy and grandiose, alternating four and three beats to the bar.
The shift was deliberately jarring. A similar thing happens at the start of “Beyond Standard” (Telarc), Hiromi’s new album, but in that case the pianistic prelude comes with the crackle and hiss of an old record. Tradition is of considerable use to Hiromi, but mainly as a springboard; she’s always poised to jackknife through the stratosphere.
Sonicbloom, her frenetic but exacting fusion band, relies on the strong propulsion of the British bassist
The shift was deliberately jarring. A similar thing happens at the start of “Beyond Standard” (Telarc), Hiromi’s new album, but in that case the pianistic prelude comes with the crackle and hiss of an old record. Tradition is of considerable use to Hiromi, but mainly as a springboard; she’s always poised to jackknife through the stratosphere.
Sonicbloom, her frenetic but exacting fusion band, relies on the strong propulsion of the British bassist
Tony Grey
bass, electricb.1975
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