Hiromi Uehara and My First Jazz Album

OK, this is the post I started writing but lost last time, but I think I need to force myself to change songs now...done. Right. So I've hated jazz since high school. Hated it. I thought it was some elitist members-only club of people with vast musical backgrounds who looked down their noses on the rest of us and I've never wanted to be one of them. Somehow, I ended up backing my way into this next artist called Hiromi Uehara on youtube....I'm gonna tell you something you might not know about me: I really enjoy watching random stuff on youtube. One of those random things I like to watch is a japanese string quartet called Vanilla Mood. They play a really strange mix of songs like 'A Whole New World' from Alladin or 'Blowin in the Wind' by Dylan. Here, watch this:
Vanilla Mood - A Whole New World(Alladin)

I'm not trying to say its the most groundbreaking stuff in the world, but it is entertaining.

Being a sucker for the 'related' links on youtube I stumbled onto these clips (11 minutes total)of Hiromi Uehara's jazz trio and was blown away.

Hiromi Uehara - Love and Laughter (parts 1 & 2)


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The word is she's been playing piano pretty much her entire life, came to the US to study at Berklee and formed this trio with two of her classmates. This is really the first jazz music I've ever really gotten into, and it actually does change your ear to the point that other music sounds different, which is crazy. I've been listening to her 'Spiral' album lately and would say its better than her newer album 'Time Control' because on 'Time Control' there's a "jazz-fusion" guitar player who's playing all over everything and pissing me off to no end. We'll get into my feelings about lead-guitar players some other time but suffice it to say I generally don't like listening to or playing music with them. I will try to put up with it for 'Time Control' however because I know the piano's gonna be mind-blowing. Moral of the story if you want to give jazz a try 'Spiral' is a good place to start.

Hiromi's Website
her Myspace page


Edit:
I just visited one of the MP3Blogs I like to visit every now and again and apparently jazz is in a big downswing. I guess I haven't been the only person in the world to think it can be a bit 'elitist'.
Check it out: Songs:Illinois talks about jazz