Hiromi Uehara at Scullers Club in Boston

ボストンのダブルツリーホテル（DoubleTree Suites Boston）の中にあるジャズ・クラブ＝Scullers Jazz Club に妻と友人夫妻とで出かけた。

ご存知のように上原ひろみ（Hiromi Uehara）は、スタンリー・クラークのアルバム「Stanley Clarke Band feat Hiromi」が第５３回グラミー賞において「ベスト・コンテンポラリー・ジャズ・アルバム」を受賞するなど、なかなかメジャーになりつつあるが、彼女がバークリー音楽院で５年を過ごしたボストンでは、こんな小さなジャズ・クラブで、間近にその音楽に触れることができる。

今年の５月末、姉がボストンに遊びに来ていたのでアカペラを聴きに来た際、このコンサートの予定を知り、早速予約した。

今回はぜひ前の席で見たかったので、Scullers Jazz Club の隣にある Green Room でのディナー込みのチケットを予約した。ディナー込みだと前から３列目までのテーブルが確保される。

ディナー４２ドル、チケット３５ドル、手数料３ドルで合計８０ドル。これに飲み物、税金、チップが足されるので、だいたい１００ドルちょっとになるが、間近で音楽が聴ける楽しみを考えると高いとは言えない。

ベースの Anthony Jackson もドラムの Steve Smith も味があってなかなかよかった（末尾に英文の紹介あり）。

曲目は最新アルバム「Voice」からだったが、また一歩音楽に深みが加わったように感じた。タイトル通り語りかけるような「音」が体の中に心地よい感動を生み出す。

コンサートの後にも、今聞き終えた曲のＣＤが買えるという楽しみがある。しかも本人のサインと握手つきで２０ドルはちょっとうれしくなってしまう。

客はほとんどが白人という気がしたが、うれしそうにサインに一番乗りしたのは日本人だった（写真）。

Hiromi Uehara first mesmerized the jazz community with her 2003 Telarc debut, Another Mind. The buzz started by her first album spread all the way back to her native Japan, where Another Mind shipped gold (100,000 units) and received the Recording Industry Association of Japan's (RIAJ) Jazz Album of the Year Award. The keyboardist/ composer's second release, Brain, won the Horizon Award at the 2004 Surround Music Awards, Swing Journal's New Star Award, Jazz Life's Gold Album, HMV Japan's Best Japanese Jazz Album, and the Japan Music Pen Club's Japanese Artist Award (the JMPC is a classical/jazz journalists club). Brain was also named Album of the Year in Swing Journal's 2005 Readers Poll. In 2006, Hiromi won Best Jazz Act at the Boston Music Awards and the Guinness Jazz Festival's Rising Star Award. She also claimed Jazzman of the Year, Pianist of the Year and Album of the Year in Swing Journal Japan's Readers Poll for her 2006 release, Spiral. Hiromi continues her winning streak with the 2007 release of Time Control and in 2008, Beyond Standard. Both releases feature Hiromi's super group, Sonic Bloom.

Anthony Jackson has been a distinctive voice on the electric bass ever since he entered the scene in New York City. He began learning the piano as a teen before switching to the guitar, and finally picking up the bass after being influenced by legendary Motown bassist James Jamerson. He has had more than 3000 recording sessions with more than 500 albums.

Over the past 35 years drummer Steve Smith, has toured and recorded with some of the biggest names in jazz and rock - appearing on recordings that have sold over 100 million copies worldwide - including Journey, Bryan Adams, Mariah Carey, Andrea Bocelli, Zucchero and Jean-Luc Ponty.

Smith is currently touring with his own all-star band Vital Information featuring Tom Coster, Vinny Valentino and Baron Browne, as well as Steps Ahead and the Indo-Jazz Fusion groups The Raga Bop Trio and George Brooks Summit. Other notable artists he has played with include Zakir Hussain, Buddy DeFranco, Benny Golson, Ahmad Jamal, Dave Liebman, Randy Brecker, Michael Brecker, Bill Evans, Mike Stern, Richard Bona, Mike Mainieri, Andy Fusco, Mark Soskin, Baron and Walt Weiskopf.

Smith produced and played on a series of 16 jazz albums for the Tone Center label featuring players such as Frank Gambale, Stu Hamm, Oteil Burbridge, Larry Coryell, Jerry Goodman, Howard Levy, Steve Marcus, Scott Henderson and Victor Wooten. His release The Best Of Steve Smith ・The Tone Center Collection is a sample of some of the best tracks from those collaborations.
Steve Smith was voted ・1 All-Around Drummer" in the Modern Drummer Magazine Readers Poll for five consecutive years from 1987-1991.

In 2001 Steve was named by Modern Drummer Magazine as one of the 典op 25 Drummers of All Time." In 2002, he was voted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame and in 2003 his Hudson Music DVD Steve Smith Drumset Technique - History of the U.S. Beat, was voted #1 Educational DVD.・The 2008 and 2009 Drum! Magazine readers poll voted Smith Best Jazz/Fusion Drummer. Hudson Music released
Steve痴 DVD/CD Drum Legacy ・Standing on the Shoulders of Giants in 2008 and it was voted Best DVD of 2009 by the readers of Drum!

In 2009 Steve played at Carnegie Hall in NYC with a special version of 纏akir Hussain痴 Masters of Percussion・that also featured 天ikku・Vinayakram and Giovanni Hidalgo. In 2010 The Raga Bop Trio featuring Prasanna, George Brooks and Smith released an album on the Abstract Logix label and toured extensively.

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