About the Event

Over more than twenty years as a recording artist, the jazz piano phenomenon Hiromi has shifted seamlessly from one spellbinding project to the next. In the process, she’s earned a reputation as one of the most explosive live performers in jazz history and a global ambassador for the art form. Her many triumphs include an NPR Tiny Desk Concert that has racked up 2 million views, the opportunity to represent her native Japan with a performance at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, a 2024 Japanese Academy Award win for Best Music Score for the animated feature film Blue Giant, and a Grammy for a collaboration with fusion hero Stanley Clarke. Her artistry is—to borrow a descriptor The New Yorker favored—“dazzling.”

In 2023, she released Sonicwonderland, debuting perhaps the most expressive, dynamic and versatile working band of her career. Called Hiromi’s Sonicwonder and featuring Hadrien Feraud on bass, Gene Coye on drums, and the trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, the group furthered Hiromi’s distinctive musical alchemy: the spirit of classic jazz-rock fusion melded with classically rooted virtuosity, entrancing funk, pop flourishes, and, through O’Farrill’s trumpet, acoustic jazz’s state of the art.

Over the past two years, Sonicwonder has continued to tour and work together consistently, advancing their deep chemistry and fearless sense of interplay. The results can be heard on Hiromi’s new Concord release and thirteenth studio full-length album, Out There, in which the group’s powerful rapport meets the pianist’s astonishing abilities as a composer on equal footing.

As Hiromi explains, “On Sonicwonderland, I had the concept and the songs first, and I was looking for the people who could play the music in the ideal way that I had in my mind. “Being with this group for well over a year,” she continues, “playing a lot of shows together and understanding each other, I started to see more of their strength and what shines in them the most. So, I started to write music with them in mind.”

Sonicwonder brings together world-class musicians of fascinatingly diverse backgrounds. French-born Feraud is a fusion virtuoso who has been rightfully compared to bass god Jaco Pastorius. Coye hails from Chicago, where he grew up playing in church, and combines technical mastery with a soulful knack for groove and pocket. Brooklyn-raised O’Farrill, part of a dynasty that includes his father and grandfather, Latin-jazz titans Arturo and Chico O’Farrill, ranks among the most important and progressive trumpeters of his generation. Throughout the album, O’Farrill conjures up audacious new sonic textures through electronics—part of his toolbox that Hiromi encouraged him to develop fully.

The finale of Hiromi’s new album is also Out There’s most delightful track: “Balloon Pop,” which is as much of an earworm as anything currently on the Hot 100. (And with O’Farrill on trumpet, its hummable theme summons up Miles Davis’s hook-filled ’80s recordings.) And therein lies the secret to Hiromi’s monumental success—her rare ability to deliver not only show-stopping virtuosity but also sheer joy. “I love playing ‘Balloon Pop,’” she says. “Every audience goes home singing this lick—well after the show has finished. The chord changes are challenging, but still it doesn’t sound complicated. I just wanted to write some songs that are singable, danceable, and fun.”

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