Hiromi is an interesting bunch of people. The Japanese keyboardist-bandleader, born Hiromi Uehara in Japan 1979, has become a Grammy-winning artist whose music veers freely from jazz to fusion and even what could be called the ADHD division of “smooth jazz,” with touches of her classical training in the wings. She resists pigeonholing, in terms of her music and her audience — attracting ears not normally inclined to like “real jazz” but enjoy a party and wizardly instrumental play.
Hiromi brings her tight, fusion-eering band Sonicwonder to Campbell Hall on Friday, April 25, making its Santa Barbara debut under the auspices of UCSB Arts & Lectures. The appearance comes amidst a promo tour for the 14th title in her discography, OUT THERE (not to be confused with improvisational jazz patois of “out” jazz, or anything associated with Eric Dolphy’s masterpiece Out to Lunch).
At last year’s Monterey Jazz Festival, the keyboardist — playing primarily her go-to instrument, a grand piano — cheerfully floated to her piano perch on the big stage of the main arena, in a fuzzy bright yellow sleeveless sweater and her customary infectious ear-to-ear grin. From the visual, we might expect music of an easy, breezy nature, but she is a powerful and extroverted musical force to be reckoned with, and her music bursts forth with the virtuosic energy, unison lines, and other Hiromi-esque dynamics.