'' Silver Lining Suite'' is the twelfth studio album by pianist

Hiromi Uehara , known professionally as Hiromi, is a Japanese jazz composer and pianist. She is known for her virtuosic technique, energetic live performances and blend of musical genres such as stride, post-bop, progressive rock, classical and fusion in her ...

. The album was released by

Concord Jazz Concord Jazz is a record company and label founded in 1973 by Carl Jefferson, the former owner of Jefferson Motors Lincoln Mercury dealership in Concord, California. The label was named after the city in the East San Francisco Bay area, and the j ...

on 8 October 2021.

Background

Uehara recorded and produced the album during the quarantine period brought on by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The release contains 9 tracks. She composed a full-length suite ("Silver Lining Suite") for piano and string quartet and divided it into four movements: "Isolation", "The Unknown", "Drifters", and "Fortitude". The other five tracks are also originals written by Uehara, with "11:49PM" having previously appeared on '' Move'' with her second trio. To record the album, she invited a string quartet led by Tatsuo Nishie, a violinist and concert-master of the

New Japan Philharmonic The is a symphony orchestra based in Tokyo, Japan. It was founded in 1972 with Seiji Ozawa as honorary conductor laureate. The Philharmonic's primary concert venue is the Sumida Triphony Hall. From 2003 to 2013 its music director was Christi ...

Reception

Mike Hobart of ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' stated that the album "enmeshes her piano with a string quartet assembled by violinist Tatsuo Nishie, concertmaster of New Japan Philharmonic, and focuses on her pandemic experiences. It takes in the anxiety of an abruptly cancelled US tour and her experience of Seattle's empty streets. It also includes the "silver lining" of live-streaming solo performances from Tokyo's Blue Note jazz club in autumn last year; it was those gigs that kickstarted the idea of performing with strings. Overall, the blend of influences remains largely untouched and she still explodes into life with the energy of rock and roll. But the flamboyance is tempered to fit the contours of Nishie's exemplary string quartet and her performance sustains inner rhythmic strength." Michael J. West of '' JazzTimes'' commented, "Never one to take a safe, familiar route, pianist Hiromi (Uehara) has composed a classical quintet for her superb new album—performed by, well, a classical quintet. That's to say that her keys merge with a standard string quartet... to play a highly melodic four-part suite with complex arrangements, as well as five additional tracks. The 'classical' in question is European classical, albeit with large jazz components."

Track listing

Personnel

*Hiromi Uehara – piano *Wataru Mukai – cello *Meguna Naka – viola *Tatsuo Nishie – violin *Sohei Birmann – violin

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2021 albums Albums impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic Hiromi Uehara albums