During my earlier years with Jazz at the Philharmonic, and through the geographic vision of Norman Granz, I had the opportunity of appearing in Japan for concerts, then with Jazz at the Philharmonic. When Norman terminated his concert tours with JATP, he encouraged me to continue my global performances, and of course Japan was part of that. I have managed over these years to divide my visits to Japan between some nightclub appearances, in jazz clubs there, and also concerts. This year my office received a call from Yamaha Music asking me if I would consent to performing dual concerts with a young lady who they have been very interested in pianistically. I am referring to Hiromi Uehara. I had the opportunity of meeting Hiromi a couple of years ago when she conducted a seminar at the Yamaha School of Music here in Toronto. I found her to be a most gifted pianist, in my view, and admired the way that she immediately attained a rapport with the students at the Yamaha School of Music in Toronto. I marveled immediately at her command of the instrument, along with her harmonic ideas and unbridled technical control. She visited at my home shortly after this and we became musical friends. I consented to the suggestion that I allow her to play the first half of my concerts on the Japanese tour.
It is one thing to hear a person once on an instrument, and yet another thing altogether to hear them nightly. I made certain to listen to her as she performed the opening of each of my concerts, and once again marveled at her command of the instrument and unbridled love of the music she was playing. She records for Telarc Records, and has exhibited the same amount of musical integrity and harmonic curiosity. I look forward to watching this young talent of hers as it grows and matures in the musical field. I had the privilege of meeting her mother and father one night in Tokyo after the concert, and tried to impart to them how pleased I was with her musical talent.

My quartet performed the second half of each program, and we were more than pleased to receive the warm ovations that we did. Most noticeable was the immediate reaction and love of our new percussionist, Alvin Queen, who musically delighted our audiences (along with us) and the reviewers. His unbridled lust for supporting the quartet seemingly came through to our listeners, and we all had to marvel at the enthusiastic and loving response of our audiences throughout the tour.

I can only hope that the tour has opened up a new path for Hiromi, and I look forward to hearing more accolades about her as we move along in our musical careers. Thank you, Hiromi, not only for your great musical talent, but also for your wonderful personality and warmth.

Hiromi Uehara and Oscar Peterson in Japan, 2004.