Hiromi - Place to Be (2009) CD Review

After three trio releases, two quartet albums and a live duet, Hiromi releases a solo piano album. It's a refreshing change, and showcases her eclectic mix of musical styles.

Here's a simple song by song breakdown.

BQE: The song opens at a blistering pace and never lets up for the entire 6 minutes. It's progressive odd-time signatures and dissonant scales evokes the frustration of being stuck in rush hour in the BQE. I'm so glad I'm not a commuter in NYC.

Choux A La Creme: Cream puffs also happens to be one of my favourite snack, and this song is as enjoyable, lighthearted and tastilicious as the real thing.

Sicilian Blue: A long quieter improvisational piece filled with complex solos and jazzy harmonies. It's reminiscent of "Spiral", both melodically and stylistically.

Berne, Baby, berne: A happy melodic romp based on a jingle played at Marian’s Jazzroom, Bern, Switzerland before each of her gigs. Nothing out of the ordinary here, but the solos are nice.

Somewhere: Pensive and quiet, this track recalls Green Tea Farm from 2005's album Spiral.

Cape Cod Chips: A relaxed uptempo tune filled with great soloing. A very rhythmic piece with creative soloing and a surprising ending.

Island Azores: A melodic piece which captures the spirit and beauty of the Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal. Hiromi's use of staccato gives the song a very clean, simplistic feel.

Pachebel's Canon: After opening with its well-known bass line, the melody enters with some intiguing harpichordic effect on the piano. The ensuing syncopated solos may detract purists as expected. In my opinion Hiromi could have done a lot more with the song than to simply jazz it up.

Viva Vegus Suite: "Show City, Show Girl" is a show tune which sounds so big it's begging for full orchestration. "Daytime in Vegas" is what one expects - quiet and a tad mysterious. "The Gambler", is one hell of an ending to this triology. The song's introduction on the piano high end is reminiscent of a slot machine coming to a stop and hitting the jackpot. The song then launches into a hyper-speed section with blisteringly fast runs before coming to a climatic conclusion.

Place to Be: This version in my opinion is much better than her live recording with Chick Corea. The beautiful melody is much more suited to a single piano.

Green Tea Farm - This bonus track from the Japanese edition is the album's biggest surprise. The song is infinitely more interesting with vocals, and Akiko Yano voice was a perfect choice.

This album recaptures some of the raw emotional intensity from her debut "Another Mind" which seemed to be less apparant in a quartet setting. Like a lot of her music, most of the tracks are too dense for casual listening. However, should you catch her soloing on tour, it will definitely be a fine place to be.