Hiromi Uehara & Chick Corea

“Spain” by Hiromi Uehara & Chick Corea

I read a Toronto Japanese magazine (well not to the fullest understanding) called “bits” [www.bitslounge.com] and searched youtube for the Japanese Jazz sensation Hiromi Uehara. Uehara is basically a Jazz artist hailed from Japan. She continued her music career in Boston where she got involved with a Jazz group which became successful.

I found this video with her and Chick Corea - an American Jazz player who is a Scientologist, reason being is because he found Ron Hubbard and the Church of Scientology as the main inspiration for his works; both of them were playing “Spain” which is Corea’s composition.

Never did I felt so great seeing two Jazz pianists play out their hearts. In music, there’s nothing better than its eliciting of imagination and beauty, and that’s what I felt in that performance shown in the video. As the title of the piece suggests, “Spain” is indeed a mystery. It suggests a place of rest in the heating sun, the matinée theatre plays running to conceal it’s intelligence to the literate. It depicts the old buildings and structures left behind by historical triumphs, wars and golden ages. It’s where the people speaks with a rapid yet flowing intonation; its languages rich in idiomatic and stylistic expressions. It’s where bullfights take place where people care less whether the bullfighter will get killed or not because they’re more enchanted with the beauty of the event. It presents a culture influenced by religion and academics where which led the kingdom (and still is) into becoming one of the greatest civilizations in world history. Its people show belief in freedom which brings about change and improvement from oppressive traditional ideas which finally brought them to today, the modern Spain.

“Spain” definitely have been one of the best Jazz compositions ever created and I’m definitely admiring Chick Corea now for that.

Nice work Hiromi & Chick! Long Live Jazz!

Naturally 7

I got another inspiring video to share to everyone out there. This is Naturally 7, as the name of the group suggests, they use their natural voices to create really good pop music. I found them performing in Toronto’s morning show and looked for more videos of them in youtube.

This is apparently them performing in a subway train. It’s just brilliant! Enjoy!

btw… the title of the song is “Feel It (In The Air Tonight)” by Naturally7. This song was originally sung by Phil Collins. I’m a big admirer of Collins, but I’m happy Naturally 7 pulled off this song real good.

Earl Klugh

Earl Klugh has definitely been one of my inspirations in life. His music brings up that very sophisticated person in myself as I move on in life each day. How come his very smooth Jazz Music bring about that feeling?

As a high school student, I definitely wanted to become a different person. My friends would only listen to rock, pop and hip-hop. I wanted to be a Classical and Jazz fan to become different but what I forgot entirely at that time is the fact that I need a reason why Classical and Jazz is the thing for me. After listening to Klugh, Debussy and Gershwin, I suddenly had that boost to find out what it is to be a Classical and Jazz fan. I’m going to deal with classical in the future since the main topic of this post is a Jazz artist.

In order to become a Jazz fan, of course I had to become familiar with the popular Jazz artists of history and most especially the history and origins of the genre which was the blues. Sad to say I hate reading up to this point in my life, therefore I couldn’t create the most poetic blogs that I wanted and share knowledge that I should have possessed with regards to what I am personally passionate about.

Anyways, to at least get the sense of Jazz, I listened to Dave Brubeck, George Benson, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Lionel Hampton, Portico Quartet, Norah Jones, Antonio Carlos Jobim (Brazilian), Vinicius de Moraes (Brazilian), Bob James, Casiopea (Japanese), and of course more Earl Klugh.

I find Jazz heartwarming. It brings a lot more peace of mind than ballads and love songs. The best thing about Jazz is that it can be expressive even without vocals or lyrics to accompany the meaning of the music. Jazz speaks for itself and it can deal with themes such as austerity and voluptuousness, egotism and altruism, pride and humility, harshness and calmness, all in each performance and in every musical piece. I find Jazz to have all the characteristics of a person that you would find in a music much better than rock, pop, ballad, or hip-hop. The funny thing is that in Jazz, no matter what type of song/music the performers are focusing on - nostalgic, romantic, sporty, emotional, etc. - I don’t stay in a single emotional state.

Those in particular are what Earl Klugh first have brought in my life through his music which only expanded as I listen to all other Jazz performers throughout history and in modern times. Jazz through Klugh showed the struggle for our freedom of expression constrained by our own abilities, by other people, or by principles that have chained people into undesirable lives. Jazz frees our souls! Jazz brings us higher in life!

This passion for Jazz doesn’t make me think that Jazz is highest form of music from all other genres as people do have different opinions about music. But one thing that I want people to realize is that music is an instrument in our lives. It drives us into an adventurous life and a greatly fulfilled one too. And for me, Jazz doesn’t cut all that, so there are still other musicians out there from other genres who I admire such as The Carpenters.

I’ll leave the issue of being different for a later journal.