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The Chatterbox => Song of the Day => Topic started by: Bobbias on April 14, 2018, 09:28:47 PM
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I was at this concert. It was absolutely amazing. They played 2 encores, with the second one being a duet of Place to Be, which is my favorite Hiromi song. Unfortunately that is neither available on youtube nor is it on the album made at that concert, so I couldnt post that specific one here :/
Hiromi has to be one of the most talented jazz pianists out there. Every time I hear her it blows my mind, and I can't believe I actually got to see her live.
This performance is one of a suite of songs Hiromi wrote specifically for her and Edmar to play together, and as its name suggests, the piece is a firey passionate song with really intense moments.
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Holy shit, that was insane. I love how the two of them played off of each other, and it looked like they had an absolute blast the entire time.
Also, I can't even imagine the sort of callouses that harpists must have, haha.
Thanks for sharing!
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Yeah. So the story behind that concert was that Hiromi met Edmar at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2016, and immediately knew that they shared the same kind of "musical language". After that she contacted him and they got together and played several shows, and then in 2017 they came back to the Jazz Festival to play a concert together to commemorate where they met.
I've been a big Hiromi fan for a while now, and I was absolutely ecstatic when I found out that my girlfriend got us tickets to see her. I had no idea who Edmar was, and I looked him up and instantly knew that they were going to put on a crazy show. I actually spent a lot of time there with my eyes closed just listening to them. We were like 8 rows back or something, but off to the far right (there were actually 3 less rows on this side, so 5 rows from the beginning of the rows on the side we were on I think.) The venue itself was actually not that large, so it had a surprisingly intimate atmosphere.
Hiromi ALWAYS looks like she's having an absolute blast.... except on a recording of Place to Be shortly after Oscar Peterson died (ok, so she doesn't exactly look like she's having a bad time per se, but it's unusual to see her looking anything other than absolutely ecstatic). I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but I think Place to Be was written as a tribute to him shortly before he died. There's 2 or 3 videos of her playing it shortly after he died where you can see her actually crying as she plays. The song starts out sounding quite sad, but you quickly realize that it's actually more bittersweet, because there are moments of pure unbridled joy in her playing in that song as well.
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Yeah, I can see why you like Place to Be. Wow.
And yeah, with all that in mind I can see how it would be a tribute to him. You can see her kind of tearing up on the video you linked near the beginning. Without knowing the backstory (outside of what you posted), the way it starts seems to reflect the weight of the loss while the uplifting segments indicate remembrance. It's just beautiful.
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Thats one reason I picked that video.
Most of her stuff is much more upbeat, but I feel that the emotional elements in that piece are why its my favorite.
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Wow amazing. This is right up my wife's alley she's going to love this.