John Hébert - Sounds of Love (January 14, 2022 Sunnyside Records)

Composer and bassist Charles Mingus’s legendary status is undeniable. Tributes to his genius tend to come up short because there isn’t a way to improve what he has already wrought. One element of Mingus’s vision that tends to get overlooked was his ability to create singular ensembles of strong, individual performers to play his music, ensembles that have gone down in history as some of the greatest of all time.

Bassist John Hébert has long been influenced by Mingus’s music. It was Mingus’s 1975 Atlantic recording, Changes One, that etched the clarity of the legend’s vision and tone into Hébert’s mind. Using the music and ensemble fluidity of the album as a direct inspiration, Hébert assembled an incredible band to play with the spirit of Mingus as a beacon for a number of performances from 2011 to 2013. The recording, Sounds of Love, presents the ensemble in their element, in a thrillingly dynamic live performance.

Having set roots in New York in the mid-1990s, Hébert became one of the most in demand bassists of his generation, upholding duties in bands led by Andrew Hill, Paul Bley, Mary Halvorson, and Uri Caine. Hébert continues to participate in a longstanding musical relationship with piano great Fred Hersch and has found himself in academia as a professor at Western Michigan University.

Assembling cohesive lineups of musicians is an art form that Mingus mastered. For this band, Hébert wanted to put together a shocking combination of musicians that would make the music come to life. Fred Hersch was a natural selection for the piano chair, as he had even studied with Mingus’s longtime pianist, Jaki Byard. The singular saxophonist and composer Tim Berne is a key fixture on New York’s Downtown scene where Hébert immersed himself and Berne makes a rare appearance as a sideman on Sounds of Love. Trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum proves a fitting foil to Berne and Hébert’s Halvorson rhythm section partner, drummer Ches Smith, proves once again that he can handle any musical challenge.

The musicians hadn’t played with each other before the first rehearsal. Their contrasting sounds were what Hébert wanted to make the music come together and still stand apart. It was a true balance of personalities and styles that would have made Mingus proud.

Hébert did not intend for the group to be a repertory band. They did develop arrangements of a handful of Mingus pieces, mostly from the Changes recording. Other pieces were written by the leader as vehicles for improvisation, with more than slight nods to the Mingus’s style, as he was obviously on Hebert’s mind.

The first performance of the group was in 2011 and, based on the strength of the ensemble, Hébert was able to take them on a short tour of Europe in 2013. The Sounds of Love recording comes from a live performance at Jazz in Bess in Lugano, Switzerland on March 27, 2013.

The recording begins with Ho Bynum’s vehement trumpet and Hersch’s pointillistic piano leading into Hébert’s “Constrictor,” an ominous waltz that sets the mood of noirish mystery as it builds to dynamic heights with Berne’s solo. Smith’s drums introduce the leader’s “Blank Faced Man,” a loose, subtle piece that shows the ensemble’s interplay. A fantastic solo bass feature from Hébert leads into Mingus’s “Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love,” the ensemble keeping their intensity at simmer, allowing Mingus’s melody to sing.

Hébert’s “Love What?” was written in response to Mingus’s “What Love?” The piece pushes and pulls, the ensemble staying dramatically malleable before ramping up the energy in an off-kilter groove. The rhythmic structure of Mingus’s bluesy “Remember Rockefeller at Attica” makes the piece incredibly exciting to solo over and the ensemble takes full advantage, as the band members sing and shout. The recording concludes with the leader’s “Frivolocity,” a piece that contorts and twists over a bassline that was loosely based on Mingus’s “Sue’s Changes.”

Perhaps the best method to honor Charles Mingus’s work isn’t through imitation. John Hébert looked to the legend’s ability to match musical personalities in service to the music as inspiration for his band on Sounds of Love, though with plenty of Mingus DNA in their output. 

1. Constrictor

2. The Blank-Faced Man

3. Duke Ellington's Sound of Love

4. Love What?

5. Remember Rockefeller at Attica

6. Frivolocity

John Hébert - bass

Taylor Ho Bynum - cornet

Tim Berne - alto saxophone

Fred Hersch - piano

Ches Smith - drums & percussion

PRE ORDER

Mary Pearson - You and I (January 2022 Arkadia Records)

“…fresh interpretations and insights… zesty… entertaining as well as romantic, as much fun as it was creative.”

– George Kanzler, Newark Star Ledger

“Long overdue – stunning and original.”

– Aaron Fensterheim- WXEL- FM 90.7

On this Arkadia Jazz recording of intimate duets, entitled “Mary Pearson: You and I”, Jazz singer Mary Pearson’s voice weaves a seamless tapestry of romance. Mary and her all-star partners Fred Hersch, Lynne Arriale, Harvie Swartz, David Lahm, Steve Davis and guitarist John Hart create a virtual suite of love songs, guaranteed to keep you under her passionate spell.

“Ms. Pearson gets to me not only with her humorous energy and stunningly musical vocal talent, but also with her “on the edge” eccentricity”. – Mark Murphy, legendary Jazz vocalist

The musical concept of the album – pairing Pearson’s indelible voice with a single instrument per song to create a collection of intimate duets – seems so clever that it’s hard to believe it is not employed more widely in the Jazz world. The simplicity of this format helps breathe new life into some of the often performed Jazz Standards, and three originals, and creates an impressive pulpit to introduce her original compositions to the world.

“These austere settings showcase the warmth and richness of Pearson’s instrument, a lush, supple voice… “You and I” is an impressive, musically exacting first effort..” – Joel E. Siegel, JazzTimes Magazine

Mary Pearson knows that it takes more than a beautiful voice to once again bring alive some of the most cherished and recorded timepieces of our American Songbook. According to the accomplished veteran, “If you can’t add something new, you may as well just put on the original and sing along”. With creative ingenuity and a vision to fashion her songs in a style never before tailored, on this Arkadia Records album, “Mary Pearson: You and I”, Pearson has been able to reclaim a glory that once existed in the classic realm of romantic Jazz, performing in the tradition of Shirley Horn, Morgana King, and Chris Conner. 

1. Lazy Afternoon 04:11

2. The More I See You 05:18

3. Take Five 02:59

4. What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? 03:58

5. * I Am Yours / You Are Mine 05:15

6. Thou Swell 04:03

7. You and I 05:24

8. * In Your Arms 04:11

9. How Long Has This Been Going On? 05:54

10. My Funny Valentine 03:57

11. * I Can’t Believe 03:26

12. Over the Rainbow 05:10

* Composed by Mary Pearson

All vocals and arrangements by Mary Pearson

Mary Pearson: Vocals

Fred Hersch: Piano

Lynne Arriale: Piano

John Hart: Guitar

Harvie Swartz (Harvie S): Bass

Steve Davis Drums

David Lahm: Piano

PRE-ORDER

Fred Hersch's Breath by Breath out Jan. 7, 2022 via Palmetto

Pianist/Composer Fred Hersch reemerges from pandemic isolation with an ambitious new album pairing jazz piano trio with string quartet

 

Breath By Breath, due out January 7, 2022 via Palmetto Records, features a stunning new suite inspired by Hersch’s meditation practice performed by Hersch with Drew Gress, Jochen Rueckert, Rogerio Boccato, and the Crosby Street String Quartet

"[Fred Hersch is] a pianist, composer and conceptualist of rare imaginative power.” 

– Nate Chinen, The New York Times

“Hersch’s work has developed an intensity of intelligence and emotional directness unparalleled among his peers.”

– Steve Futterman, The New Yorker 

Album release concert January 9 at Village Vanguard, NYC 

Pianist Igor Levit premieres new Hersch work January 13 at Carnegie Hall 

Iconic pianist/composer Fred Hersch was an early adopter of new technologies and new ways forward when the pandemic hit in early 2020. But he’s also been among the most eager to return to live performance and collaboration now that life has begun to resume some semblance of normality. In August he returned to the studio to record one of his most ambitious projects to date: Breath By Breath, his first album ever pairing jazz rhythm section with string quartet.

 

“I’ve put all my streaming gear away,” declares Hersch, whose lockdown months started off with daily performances on Facebook and culminated in last year’s solo release Live From Home. “It was great while that was what it was, and now I'm in this place where it's live or nothing.”

 

Due out January 7, 2022 via Palmetto Records, Breath By Breath draws inspiration from the pianist’s longtime practice of mindfulness meditation, centered on the new eight-movement “Sati Suite.” But while the album is certainly contemplative and lustrous, it’s far from being merely an ambient backdrop for blissful relaxation – the music on Breath By Breath is as fully engaged and emotionally rich as any that Hersch has made over the course of his remarkable career.

In part that’s due to the musicians Hersch has enlisted for the album. Bassist Drew Gress was a member of the pianist’s first trio and has been an inspiring bandstand partner for more than three decades. Jochen Rueckert is one of the most in-demand drummers on the modern scene, having played with such greats as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, Melissa Aldana and Pat Metheny. The Crosby Street String Quartet, named for the NYC address where they first rehearsed with Hersch, combines four of the city’s busiest freelance string players: violinists Joyce Hammann and Laura Seaton, violist Lois Martin, and cellist Jody Redhage Ferber. 

“String quartets have been some of my favorite music to listen to my whole life,” Hersch explains. As he writes in the album’s liner notes, “I grew up listening to string quartets as a very young musician in Cincinnati. My piano teacher was the wife of the cellist in the famous LaSalle Quartet. I used to lie on the rug in their living room as an elementary school student while they rehearsed, quietly following along, hearing how the viola part meshed with the first violin, or the second violin and the cello. And ever since I started studying composition at age eight, almost all of my music has always focused on four melodic parts - so string quartets are a natural musical configuration for me.” 

The string writing on Breath By Breath spotlights the broad scope of Hersch’s compositional imagination. With each piece the quartet seems to take on a new role in relation to the piano trio: a lush background on one tune, an equal partner in dialogue on the next, an abstract instigator on yet another. “It was important to me that we record live with the strings so I could interact with what they were playing,” Hersch says. “I didn't want to lay down the music and then have them come in later and overdub. I felt like the fun of the project was to do it live.”

“Sati” is a Pali word meaning “mindfulness” or “awareness,” an idea that is central to Hersch’s meditation practice – which itself took on an even more profound importance during the pandemic. “It basically saved me,” he says with no hint of exaggeration. “Meditation is not about not emptying your mind; it's about observation. The phrase I like to use is, ‘relax, allow and observe.’ When I meditate it’s about recognizing sensations or thoughts as they come in and out, observing them and realizing that they're just phenomena. The brain thinks, and there's nothing wrong with that.”

The first movement, “Begin Again” references the cycle of renewal that begins fresh with each moment. Other pieces touch on different aspects of the process. “Know That You Are,” the composition that initiated the suite, refers to the foundational instruction, “When you sit, know that you are sitting and when you breath, know that you are breathing.” The often frantic activity of a mind struggling to be at rest is the subject of “Monkey Mind,” while “Mara,” which features a guest appearance by percussionist Rogerio Boccato, is the name of the god who tempted Buddha with wine, women and wealth.

Bringing meditation to the forefront of his music brings Hersch full circle in a sense, as he recognized when he began the practice decades ago. “When I started, I realized that in a way I've been meditating my whole life – but on a piano bench. I close my eyes when I play and I go into in that world. Occasionally I get distracted, but I don't get wrapped up in it. Instead of my breath being an anchor, the anchor is the sound that I get, the tactile feeling of my fingers on the keys, hearing the space around the music, and leaving that space for other musicians to contribute.”

Breath By Breath, then, is a recognition that meditation has been a way for Hersch to align his daily existence with the enlightened state he reaches while playing the piano. With the release of this captivating new recording, the rest of us are fortunate enough to glimpse that place and to feel its life-affirming impact on our own hearts and souls.

Fred Hersch

A select member of jazz’s piano pantheon, Fred Hersch is an influential creative force who has shaped the music’s course over more than three decades. A fifteen-time Grammy nominee, Hersch has long set the standard for expressive interpretation and inventive creativity. A revered improviser, composer, educator, bandleader, collaborator and recording artist, Hersch has been proclaimed “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade” by Vanity Fair, “an elegant force of musical invention” by The L.A. Times, and “a living legend” by The New Yorker. For decades Hersch has been firmly entrenched as one of the most acclaimed and captivating pianists in modern jazz, whether through his exquisite solo performances, as the leader of one of jazz’s era-defining trios, or in eloquent dialogue with his deeply attuned duo partners. His brilliant 2017 memoir, Good Things Happen Slowly, was named one of 2017’s Five Best Memoirs by the Washington Post and The New York Times.

The Sati Suite

1. Begin Again 6:52

2. Awakened Heart 4:13

3. Breath by Breath 6:22

4. Monkey Mind 4:01

5. Rising, Falling 5:03

6. Mara* 4:38

7. Know That You Are 3:41

8. Worldly Winds 5:26

Fred Hersch, piano

Crosby Street String Quartet

Joyce Hammann & Laura Seaton, violins

Lois Martin, viola

Jody Redhage Ferber, ‘cello

Drew Gress, bass

Jochen Rueckert, drums

*Rogerio Boccato, percussion

Fred Hersch – Breath By Breath

Palmetto Records – PM2198 – Recorded Aug. 24-25, 2021

Release date January 7, 2022

fredhersch.com    Palmetto Records

Fred Hersch to release major new album Jan. 7, 2022

Pianist/Composer Fred Hersch reemerges from pandemic isolation with an ambitious new album pairing jazz piano trio with string quartet

 

Breath By Breath, due out January 7, 2022 via Palmetto Records, features a stunning new suite inspired by Hersch’s meditation practice performed by Hersch with Drew Gress, Jochen Rueckert, Rogerio Boccato, and the Crosby Street String Quartet

"[Fred Hersch is] a pianist, composer and conceptualist of rare imaginative power.” 

– Nate Chinen, The New York Times

“Hersch’s work has developed an intensity of intelligence and emotional directness unparalleled among his peers.”

– Steve Futterman, The New Yorker 

Album release concerts January 4 – 9 at Village Vanguard, NYC 

Pianist Igor Levit premieres new Hersch work January 13 at Carnegie Hall

Iconic pianist/composer Fred Hersch was an early adopter of new technologies and new ways forward when the pandemic hit in early 2020. But he’s also been among the most eager to return to live performance and collaboration now that life has begun to resume some semblance of normality. In August he returned to the studio to record one of his most ambitious projects to date: Breath By Breath, his first album ever pairing jazz rhythm section with string quartet.

 

“I’ve put all my streaming gear away,” declares Hersch, whose lockdown months started off with daily performances on Facebook and culminated in last year’s solo release Live From Home. “It was great while that was what it was, and now I'm in this place where it's live or nothing.”

 

Due out January 7, 2022 via Palmetto Records, Breath By Breath draws inspiration from the pianist’s longtime practice of mindfulness meditation, centered on the new eight-movement “Sati Suite.” But while the album is certainly contemplative and lustrous, it’s far from being merely an ambient backdrop for blissful relaxation – the music on Breath By Breath is as fully engaged and emotionally rich as any that Hersch has made over the course of his remarkable career.

In part that’s due to the musicians Hersch has enlisted for the album. Bassist Drew Gress was a member of the pianist’s first trio and has been an inspiring bandstand partner for more than three decades. Jochen Rueckert is one of the most in-demand drummers on the modern scene, having played with such greats as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, Melissa Aldana and Pat Metheny. The Crosby Street String Quartet, named for the NYC address where they first rehearsed with Hersch, combines four of the city’s busiest freelance string players: violinists Joyce Hammann and Laura Seaton, violist Lois Martin, and cellist Jody Redhage Ferber. 

“String quartets have been some of my favorite music to listen to my whole life,” Hersch explains. As he writes in the album’s liner notes, “I grew up listening to string quartets as a very young musician in Cincinnati. My piano teacher was the wife of the cellist in the famous LaSalle Quartet. I used to lie on the rug in their living room as an elementary school student while they rehearsed, quietly following along, hearing how the viola part meshed with the first violin, or the second violin and the cello. And ever since I started studying composition at age eight, almost all of my music has always focused on four melodic parts - so string quartets are a natural musical configuration for me.” 

The string writing on Breath By Breath spotlights the broad scope of Hersch’s compositional imagination. With each piece the quartet seems to take on a new role in relation to the piano trio: a lush background on one tune, an equal partner in dialogue on the next, an abstract instigator on yet another. “It was important to me that we record live with the strings so I could interact with what they were playing,” Hersch says. “I didn't want to lay down the music and then have them come in later and overdub. I felt like the fun of the project was to do it live.”

“Sati” is a Pali word meaning “mindfulness” or “awareness,” an idea that is central to Hersch’s meditation practice – which itself took on an even more profound importance during the pandemic. “It basically saved me,” he says with no hint of exaggeration. “Meditation is not about not emptying your mind; it's about observation. The phrase I like to use is, ‘relax, allow and observe.’ When I meditate it’s about recognizing sensations or thoughts as they come in and out, observing them and realizing that they're just phenomena. The brain thinks, and there's nothing wrong with that.”

The first movement, “Begin Again” references the cycle of renewal that begins fresh with each moment. Other pieces touch on different aspects of the process. “Know That You Are,” the composition that initiated the suite, refers to the foundational instruction, “When you sit, know that you are sitting and when you breath, know that you are breathing.” The often frantic activity of a mind struggling to be at rest is the subject of “Monkey Mind,” while “Mara,” which features a guest appearance by percussionist Rogerio Boccato, is the name of the god who tempted Buddha with wine, women and wealth.

Bringing meditation to the forefront of his music brings Hersch full circle in a sense, as he recognized when he began the practice decades ago. “When I started, I realized that in a way I've been meditating my whole life – but on a piano bench. I close my eyes when I play and I go into in that world. Occasionally I get distracted, but I don't get wrapped up in it. Instead of my breath being an anchor, the anchor is the sound that I get, the tactile feeling of my fingers on the keys, hearing the space around the music, and leaving that space for other musicians to contribute.”

Breath By Breath, then, is a recognition that meditation has been a way for Hersch to align his daily existence with the enlightened state he reaches while playing the piano. With the release of this captivating new recording, the rest of us are fortunate enough to glimpse that place and to feel its life-affirming impact on our own hearts and souls.

fredhersch.com

Pianist/Composer Fred Hersch earns multiple DownBeat Critics Poll accolades, tours Europe, and announces new album

Fred Hersch: Refuge, due out January 7, 2022 via Palmetto Records, features Hersch with Drew Gress, Jochen Rueckert & The Hudson String Quartet

 

“Fred Hersch belongs to the jazz piano aristocracy, that small elite called to leave a lasting mark.”

– Louis-Julien Nicolaou, Télérama, June 2021

 

“Fred Hersch is always on target. Right in the heart. By playing ‘Songs from Home.’ Fred Hersch makes Bal Blomet his home. The audience's silence is worthy of that of the forest that surrounds the house where this album was recorded…. Fred Hersch makes the piano sing…. The public does not want to leave. Fred Hersch either.”

– Guillaume Lagrée, Le jars jase jazz, June 2021

Iconic pianist/composer Fred Hersch – one of the first to find a new way forward in the pandemic both through his Facebook Tune of the Day performances and via his reflective solo album Songs from Home – heads to the studio in August to record Fred Hersch: Refuge, his first-ever album with rhythm section and string quartet.  It will be released January 7, 2022 via Palmetto Records.

 

Featuring Hersch with Drew Gress, Jochen Rueckert and the all-female NYC-based Hudson String Quartet: Joyce Hammann and Laura Seaton-Finn, violins; Lois Martin, viola; and Jody Redhage Ferber, cello, the album was inspired by Hersch’s Buddhism and his 20-year insight mindfulness meditation practice. The bulk of the album is an eight-movement suite that reflects on different aspects of that practice

 

“In Buddhism, there are the three refuges: refuge in the Buddha, refuge in the sangha (community of practitioners) and refuge in the dhamma (the teachings),” says Hersch. “At this time of global impermanence, I have found some degree of comfort in these refuges – places that I can turn to and feel somewhat less affected by it all of the suffering and toxicity around me. And these refuges also give me some strength to stay in the present and know that there are many things that are out of my control – but I can call upon my practice to be with my experiences instead of reacting to them.”

Hersch recently earned accolades in DownBeat Magazine’s 2021 Critics Poll as #2 Jazz Artist, #3 Pianist, and #4 Jazz Album of the Year for Songs From Home. Hersch also earned a spot as one of the best pianists of 2020 in the JazzTimes Readers Poll.  He is currently on tour in Europe where he’s earning wide critical acclaim for his over a dozen shows – his first concerts before an audience in 14 months. Reviewing his concert in Paris, Guillaume Lagrée wrote “Fred Hersch is always on target… The public does not want to leave. Fred Hersch either.” Hersch also performed in Recklinghausen, Rome, Carpi, Vicenza, Pescara, Bari, Perugia, Umbria, Montreux, and Brescia – as a solo pianist, with trio and duo in a new partnership with Italian jazz legend trumpeter Enrico Rava. 

 

Hersch will continuing touring both the U.S. and Europe throughout the fall. His dates include a week at the Village Vanguard in a duo with Julian Lage October 19-25, and a series of duo shows in Europe with Enrico Rava in October and November. Click HERE for upcoming tour dates.

fredhersch.com      facebook

Open Studio Presents Fred Hersch In His First Ever Online Course Beginning June 11

OPEN STUDIO PRESENTS 15-TIME GRAMMY NOMINEE FRED HERSCH IN HIS FIRST EVER ONLINE COURSE BEGINNING JUNE 11

 

Thoughts and Experiments with Solo Piano features 18 lessons, nine performances, and an exclusive interview with Hersch

© Tracey Yarad

With inspiring artists, deep content, passionate students and a soulful approach, Open Studio is more than a jazz education platform – it’s a global family of music lovers, joining together to celebrate jazz as a vibrant and collaborative art form. Beginning on June 11, 2021, iconic pianist Fred Hersch, a fifteen-time Grammy nominee, will present Thoughts and Experiments with Solo Piano – his first ever online course. 

 

Featuring 18 lessons over 6 hours, the course also includes an exclusive 45-minute interview with Hersch as well as nine full performances of jazz classics and transcriptions of both those performances as well as most of the demonstrations in the lessons. Students can join the individual course, or they access it as an Open Studio membership, giving access to the full breadth of courses.  Visit Hersch’s Open Studio artist page here. 

 

Hersch, a pervasively influential creative force who has taught at the conservatory level for over 40 years, has mentored some of the most prominent jazz pianists of the past two generations, including Jason Moran and Sullivan Fortner. Rather than offer a traditional “how-to” or “method” course, he aims to inspire, enlighten, and catalyze creativity. “My goal is to embolden students to try things, play with less fear and, whatever their level of playing, have more fun as they embrace the demands of being a solo pianist,” says Hersch. “As one who has recorded eleven solo albums and plays many such concerts a year, I also want to share my experiences, some funny and meaningful stories, and some tips that I have picked up over the years.”

 

Hersch also applied his masterful, intuitive improvisational instincts to devising the course. “I had no ‘plan’ going in,” he says, “I just let it fly – and the laborious editing of the wizards at Open Studio helped shape it all into a logical sequence and flow that builds upon itself, and will hopefully help some pianists embrace the ‘aha’ moments that can happen when one takes the ‘should’ and ‘should-nots’ out of their time at the piano.”

 

Hersch first met Open Studio’s Brian Fielding in 1980 at a jazz club in Greenwich Village. Fielding was a serious amateur jazz pianist and began studying with Fred. Several years ago, Brian, then recently retired from Audible.com, told Fred about Open Studio. “I checked it out and was very impressed with the audio and visual quality and the passion that everyone involved had for making online jazz education as good as it could be,” says Hersch. ”No one, of course, could have predicted the COVID-19 pandemic – Open Studio has been a lifeline for many aspiring musicians and teaching artists during these strange times.”

ABOUT FRED HERSCH

A select member of jazz’s piano pantheon, Fred Hersch is a pervasively influential creative force who has shaped the music’s course over more than three decades as an improviser, composer, educator, bandleader, collaborator and recording artist. With some fifty albums to his credit as a leader or co-leader, he’s a 15-time Grammy Award nominee who continues to earn jazz’s most prestigious awards, including recent distinctions as a 2016 Doris Duke Artist and 2018 Jazz Pianist of the Year from the Jazz Journalists Association. Proclaimed “a living legend” by The New Yorker, Hersch has long defined jazz’s creative edge in a wide variety of settings, from his breathtaking solo recitals and exploratory duos to his extraordinary trios and innovative chamber settings. As a composer, he is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship – and his recent releases, Live In Europe with his celebrated trio, and the 2020 solo disc Songs From Home are definitive statements. His acclaimed memoir Good Things Happen Slowly is available from Crown Archetype Books.

Fred Hersch Website    Facebook

ABOUT OPEN STUDIO 

Founded by acclaimed jazz pianist and educator, Peter Martin, Open Studio has students in 141 countries, and has built a thriving community of aspiring jazz students and top jazz artists -- including such luminaries as Christian McBride, Dianne Reeves, Sean Jones, Geoffrey Keezer and Gregory Hutchinson. At Open Studio the concept is simple and the interactions are inspiring: players take comprehensive online video courses taught by master jazz musicians that are more than just Grammy-winning virtuosos - they’re inspiring and thoughtful teachers, ready to share their knowledge and inspire you with their tools of the trade. All this happens at Open Studio, the most innovative jazz learning platform on the web, and the new way players learn to play. Click here for media assets and information.

www.openstudiojazz.com

facebook

twitter

youtube

March 15 – 21, Fred Hersch Daily Livestreams Commemorating “The Year That Was"

“The Year That Was” daily at 1 p.m. EST

Monday, March 15 – Sunday, March 21

Iconic pianist/composer Fred Hersch commemorates extraordinary lockdown year with seven days of

streams on Facebook Live

Hersch encourages listeners to contribute to a different non-profit each day

Just over one year ago, in mid-March of 2020, pianist/composer Fred Hersch began posting a “Tune of the Day” at 1 p.m. daily on Facebook Live. After a close friend died of COVID-19 in the first week of lockdown, it was therapeutic for him in dealing with that loss – and he thought he might be able to brighten people’s days. Many thousands of viewers saw the daily streams. After about six weeks, Hersch decided to end the regular streams, just doing them occasionally when the spirit moved him.

That experience prompted his intimate and reflective solo album, Songs From Home, self-recorded in July and released in November 2020 via Palmetto Records. An embrace of nostalgia and warmth, captured in the tranquility of the pianist’s second home in the Pennsylvania woods, the album features a playlist comprised mainly of tunes from the days in the ‘60s and ‘70s before he became aware of jazz: The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, iconic Broadway tunes and a folksong along with some jazz standards and two original pieces. Songs from Home earned acclaim as a “most necessary listen,” (NPR) “a collection of anthems for our era,” (Slate), and “an unpretentious, quietly mirthful album,” (NY Times). “It’s hard not to be awed,” noted DownBeat, while Stereophile called it “masterful, advanced, accessible, modern jazz.” WBGO said simply: "It's like a hug from Fred...it's so beautiful."

Now Hersch returns Monday, March 15 – Sunday, March 21 at 1 p.m. EDT with The Year That Was, seven days of streams on Facebook Live to commemorate this extraordinary year. Each day a new tune will be performed – and each day he will be asking folks who tune in to support a different charity that he has selected for that day. Beneficiary organizations include Feeding America, Jazz Foundation of America, International Rescue Committee, Haitian Alliance for Global Health, the Grammy Foundation’s MusiCares, UNICEF and the ACLU. The repertoire will feature tunes that, to Hersch, have personal resonance with the last twelve months. Composers include The Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Alec Wilder, James Taylor and JS Bach.

Fred Hersch

A select member of jazz’s piano pantheon, Fred Hersch is an influential creative force who has shaped the music’s course over more than three decades. A fifteen-time Grammy nominee, Hersch has long set the standard for expressive interpretation and inventive creativity. A revered improviser, composer, educator, bandleader, collaborator and recording artist, Hersch has been proclaimed “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade” by Vanity Fair, “an elegant force of musical invention” by The L.A. Times, and “a living legend” by The New Yorker. For decades Hersch has been firmly entrenched as one of the most acclaimed and captivating pianists in modern jazz, whether through his exquisite solo performances, as the leader of one of jazz’s era-defining trios, or in eloquent dialogue with his deeply attuned duo partners. His brilliant 2017 memoir, Good Things Happen Slowly, was named one of 2017’s Five Best Memoirs by the Washington Post and The New York Times.

Fred Hersch Website

Fred Hersch - Songs from Home (Palmetto Records)

Fred Hersch, who has calmly, sensibly, and passionately bequeathed us some of the most lyrical jazz of the past few decades, was lucky enough to have a house built around a piano. Specifically, a seven-foot Steinway B, with a certain percussive thunkiness to the D above middle C. The breezy way of describing Hersch’s solution to that thunk is that he turned a bug into a feature, as you can hear especially on this album’s versions of Cole Porter’s “Get Out of Town” and Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman.”

 

More elegantly, more emotionally, we could say Hersch’s found the best possible way to live with these times. Stuck at home because of the pandemic, alone for some of that time, he flipped over to playing one tune a day for his Facebook audience—solo piano, natch. That project eventually evolved into what’s here, although if I understand correctly, none of the Facebook outings made it onto the new set. “Wichita Lineman” sprints along, pulls back, and Hersch unassumingly (he’s always avoided flash) finds spaces between chords that lead to chord substitutions that lead to unexplored territory in the world-famous tune—Zeno’s infinities between two points, or even two measure markers.

He concludes by rolling out another famous tune, “When I’m Sixty-Four.” Stride piano transmutes into new shadings, new volleys, as if he’d collected every single rainstorm of his life, gathered choice raindrops varied by size, shape, color, tinge, velocity, and shade of overhead sky, then let only those fly. I know Hersch’s brilliance isn’t effortless; he’s spoken and written about what he had to go through to reach it. I’m grateful that he did, though, and that he’s here, free to thunk away for (let’s hope) another few decades. - Andrew Hamlin (jazztimes.com)

1. Wouldn't It Be Loverly 6:09

2. Wichita Lineman 5:50

3. After You've Gone 5:15

4. All I Want 7:16

5. Get Out Of Town 4:38

6. West Virginia Rose / The Water is Wide 5:47

7. Sarabande 5:57

8. Consolation (A Folk Song) 5:10

9. Solitude 6:04

10. When I'm Sixty Four 5:02

Fred Hersch: piano

buy here

Out Dec. 7 – Fred Hersch Trio '97 @ The Village Vanguard

Acclaimed Pianist/Composer Fred Hersch Revisits his First Stint as a Bandleader at New York’s Most Iconic Nightclub on

Fred Hersch Trio ’97 @ The Village Vanguard

Never-before-released recordings from 1997 showcase Hersch and the much-loved 1990s incarnation of his trio, with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Tom Rainey, on their only live album  

“[A] pianist, composer and conceptualist of rare imaginative power…”

–Nate Chinen, New York Times

"A living legend.

– Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker

For jazz fans in 2018, it might be difficult to imagine a time when pianist/composer Fred Hersch was not intimately associated with the Village Vanguard. For more than two decades the iconic New York City nightclub has been a home base for Hersch, who performs there for packed houses three times a year and has recorded some of his most acclaimed albums on its historic stage.

But there is, of course, a first time for everything – and for Fred Hersch that first time was in July 1997. Not his first time playing at the Vanguard, which he’d done regularly since 1979 with a host of legendary bandleaders including Joe Henderson, Art Farmer, Lee Konitz, Ron Carter, Al Foster and others. That mid-summer week in 1997 was his first of many stints at the venue as a bandleader in his own right, placing him in the hallowed company of such icons as John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Charles Mingus.

Fortunately, Hersch and his trio’s three Friday night sets were captured for posterity and now, after 21 years, the pianist has hand-picked his favorite moments on Fred Hersch Trio ’97 @ The Village Vanguard, due for release on December 7, 2018 via Palmetto Records. The album’s eight tunes – a mix of Songbook standards, classic jazz compositions and original pieces – captures the Fred Hersch Trio of that time at the height of their estimable powers. Bassist Drew Gress and drummer Tom Rainey had been working with Hersch for five years at the point that they took the Vanguard stage, and those years shine through in the band’s vigorous swing, highly charged interplay, and sheer joy in discovery that they find in one another’s playing.

“It meant everything,” Hersch says of his first week at the Vanguard. “For me, it’s equivalent to the first time a classical musician plays at Carnegie Hall. It’s the greatest jazz club in the world.”

Beyond its historical significance in Hersch’s career, this new collection is also a welcome addition to his discography in that it’s the only live recording of this much-loved trio. For those who weren’t fortunate enough to catch them live, Hersch’s work with Gress and Rainey could only be heard in its purest form on a pair of studio albums released by the Chesky label: 1993’s Dancing in the Dark and 1994’s Plays. (On Point in Time (1995) they were supplemented by trumpeter Dave Douglas and saxophonist Rich Perry, while they were joined by a full string orchestra on 1996’s Passion Flower: Fred Hersch Plays Billy Strayhorn. This release also marks the earliest available live recording by Hersch aside from his solo concert Live at Maybeck from 1993.

It had taken Hersch 18 years to graduate from sideman to leader at the Vanguard simply because he insisted on waiting until he could be joined by his own trio rather than an all-star band assembled for the occasion. “I was very stubborn about wanting to do it on my own terms with my own band,” Hersch recalls. “That’s why it took so long. I didn't want to just go in there once and then not come back. That does happen. I insisted on throwing it down the way I wanted to.”

The wisdom of that decision is amply evident in the profound chemistry shared by the trio throughout Fred Hersch Trio ’97 @ The Village Vanguard. The album opens with a robust romp through “Easy To Love” that showcases the trio’s muscular but elastic way with rhythm. The sensitivity of Gress’ playing comes to the fore on “My Funny Valentine,” while Rainey’s sharp-honed propulsion drives “Three Little Words” and prompts Hersch to take sharp curves at breakneck pace in his solo. The first of two Hersch originals, “Evanessence” pays homage to one of the pianist’s most respected predecessors on the Vanguard bench, Bill Evans. “Swamp Thang,” meanwhile, digs deep into the murky groove suggested by the title.

Gress contributes “Andrew John,” introduced by a compelling solo rumination by Hersch before the trio contributes some of its most sparse and tender accents. With a contained intensity, “I Wish I Knew” exercises the bandmates’ gifts for subtle dynamic shifts, and “You Don’t Know What Love Is” ends the album at a blistering pace, at once staggeringly virtuosic and gleefully thrilling.

Listening back to the recordings all these years later, Hersch hears a band playing with remarkable confidence and abandon given the HIV-positive pianist’s personal health concerns at the time. Just over a decade later he would be placed in a medically-induced coma after a bad case of pneumonia; another ten years have passed since, affording the pianist an insightful perspective. “I was pleasantly surprised at how much authority and attention to detail everyone was playing with,” he says. “Maybe if I would have listened to it a week after the concerts I would have heard the flaws, but with this much distance I think it stacks up with any of my better trio albums.”

The album is certainly a worthy addition to Hersch’s catalogue, even at a time when his current trio (with John Hébert and Eric McPherson) is scaling unprecedented heights, as it did on this year’s highly-acclaimed Live in Europe. But just as importantly, Fred Hersch Trio ’97 @ The Village Vanguard adds another chapter to the rich history shared by a revered artist and a legendary venue.

“Having my photo on the wall of the Village Vanguard means more to me than a Grammy Award,” Hersch reflects. “That’s one of the accomplishments that I’m proudest of, and it signifies my long and deep relationship with the club. There is magic there.”

A select member of jazz’s piano pantheon, Fred Hersch is a pervasively influential creative force who has shaped the music’s course over more than three decades as an improviser, composer, educator, bandleader, collaborator and recording artist. He has been proclaimed “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade” by Vanity Fair, “an elegant force of musical invention” by The L.A. Times, and “a living legend” by The New Yorker. A twelve-time Grammy nominee, Hersch has regularly garnered jazz’s most prestigious awards, including recent distinctions as a 2016 Doris Duke Artist, 2016 and 2018 Jazz Pianist of the Year from the Jazz Journalists Association, and the 2017 Prix Honorem de Jazz from L’Acádemie Charles Cros for the totality of his career. With more than three dozen albums to his credit as a leader or co-leader, Hersch consistently receives lavish critical praise and numerous international awards for each highly anticipated new release. In 2017, he released his acclaimed memoir, Good Things Happen Slowly (Crown Archetype Books/Random House), which compellingly reveals the story of his life in music along with a frank recounting of his struggles and triumphs as the first openly gay, HIV-positive jazz musician. The book was named one of 2017’s Five Best Memoirs by the Washington Post and The New York Times. As a composer, Hersch has earned distinction with such visionary pieces as 2003’s Leaves of Grass, a large-scale setting of Walt Whitman's poetry, and the 2010 multimedia project My Coma Dreams.

fredhersch.com

FRED HERSCH DUOS: OCTOBER 16TH - OCTOBER 18TH - OCTOBER 19TH & OCTOBER 21ST @ The Village Vanguard

FRED HERSCH DUOS

OCTOBER 16TH - OCTOBER 18TH

Fred Hersch (piano)

Anat Cohen (clarinet)

OCTOBER 19TH - OCTOBER 21ST

Fred Hersch (piano)

Esperanza Spalding (vocals)

Jeanfrançois Prins + Judy Niemack & Fred Hersch - Beauty & The Prince (GAM MUSIC 2018)

Guitarist Jeanfrancois Prins has once again created a rich, multi-textured musical tapestry with a collection of grooving jazz standards, originals, and fusion tunes. The interaction between Prins and his band, each a world-renowned player in his own right, shows the intense listening and mutual inspiration felt by all. Note that he cut here the first guitar version of Jimmy Rowles' magnificent melody "The Peacocks" 

Judy Niemack appears as a guest vocalist on 8 tracks, and sails through tricky arrangements, scats like an angel, and delivers lyrics with heartfelt emotion. 

Piano master Fred Hersch appears on 7 tracks, as brilliant and interactive as ever, whether weaving his luxuriant harmonies around Niemack's voice or co-composing intricate fugue-like lines in real time with Prins. 

Very enjoyable listening, from start to finish!

Jeanfrançois Prins guitar

Judy Niemack vocals

Fred Hersch piano

Hein van de Geyn bass

Bruno Castellucci drums

1. Meaning Of The Blues 08:12

2. The Blessing 07:04

3. Love Will Grow (Beauty and the Prince) 03:49

4. Stolen Moments 05:14

5. The Peacocks 10:16

6. Three Views of a Secret 06:19

7. Bjudyful 06:41

8. I Think of You (Thinking of You) 08:46

9. Ladies in Mercedes 04:21

10. Body and Soul 05:56

11. That's What I Say (Jordu) 02:53

12. Sojourn 05:19

13. Young Folks 02:26

GAM MUSIC

Fred Hersch Trio - Heartsongs (Remastered) SUNNYSIDE RECORDS 2018

Hersch is a true musician with virtuosic gifts and a rare insight formed from close studies in both jazz and classical music, and by constant practice and just plain hard work. He also is intelligent, a quality that speaks eloquently through the architectonics of his music as well as in his conversation. His is a talent that has been distilled to essences which are now producing music at the cutting edge. Fred – a transition in reference that stems from a sense of knowing this unique individual – possesses an innate congeniality, honesty and willingness to share that is as refreshing, especially in this age of hype and hyperbole, as it is disarming. 

“This is the first album I’ve done with a working band,” Fred begins. “There was the album Horizons, with Marc Johnson and Joey Baron. But though we had played together with Toots Thielemans and in other rhythm section contexts, we never played as a trio. 

“Michael Formanek and Jeff Hirshfield are contemporaries, which is a very important thing to me because we grew up listening to the same music. We’ve been in New York about the same amount of time. We’ve done all the sideman gigs, some of them together: Michael has played with people like Freddie Hubbard, Eddie Henderson, Tony Williams, Herbie Mann. Attila Zoller and Dave Liebman. Jeff also has played with a lot of people including Jim Hall, Randy Brecker and Eliane Elias, Penny Wallace and numerous big bands. We’ve been jazz mercenaries’, as Jeff calls it. But, now this trio project is something that we’re doing for us! 

“While it’s not a co-op in the strict sense, it’s a big commitment for each of us, which I find flattering. For example, we don’t play anything that we all don’t feel good about. And we talk everything over. We trust, I think, each other’s judgement. We feel that this record is a good documentation of the work that we’ve done over the past year. So we’ll now be putting some of this material away and add other things involving different rhythms and influences coming from various world music sources, especially from Africa and South America.” 

Fred Hersch - piano

Michael Formanek - bass

Jeff Hirshfield - drums

1. The Man I Love 08:34

2. Fall 03:33

3. Lullabye 06:18

4. Free For Three 03:13

5. Heartsong 05:09

6. Infant Eyes 07:37

7. Beam Me Up 04:28

8. I Mean You 04:33

9. Evanessence 05:37

10. Rain Waltz 07:01

11. The Sphinx 03:43

Various Artists - Chesky Records Audiophile Tribute to Miles Davis (CHESKY RECORDS 2018)

Miles Davis is synonymous with the history of Jazz. With a discography that includes over 80 albums, Davis' catalog is as expansive as it is timeless. On this Chesky Records compilation, we've assembled Jazz luminaries' interpretations of his works in tribute to the immortal greatness of Miles Davis. Add to the beautiful music that it was pristinely captured for an audiophile audience, and you have a classic album for the ages.

1. Shh Peaceful 11:21

Wallace Roney, Bob Belden, Oz Noy, Kevin Hays, Daryl Johns, Lenny White

2. Circle 05:17

Carlos Franzetti

3. So What 06:17

Victor Bailey, Larry Coryell, Lenny White

4. It's About That Time 14:29

Wallace Roney, Bob Belden, Oz Noy, Kevin Hays, Daryl Johns, Lenny White

5. Solar 02:32

Shelly Berg & David Finck

6. Blue In Green 04:31

Valerie Joyce

7. Mademoiselle Mabry 10:05

Wallace Roney, Bob Belden, Oz Noy, Kevin Hays, Daryl Johns, Lenny White

8. Milestones 03:51

The Fred Hersch Trio

9. Blue in Green 07:28

George Coleman, Mike Stern, Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb

10. All Blues 07:03

George Coleman, Mike Stern, Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb

11. Eighty One 06:30

George Coleman, Mike Stern, Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb

12. Freddie Freeloader 06:34

George Coleman, Mike Stern, Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb

Kate Reid - The Heart Already Knows (2018)

STUNNING VOCALIST KATE REID RELEASES “THE HEART ALREADY KNOWS” WITH ROMERO LUBAMBO, FRED HERSCH, TAYLOR EIGSTI, LARRY KOONSE, PAUL MEYERS

KATE REID is an artist who’s not afraid to take chances. On her new CD, THE HEART ALREADY KNOWS (July 30, 2018), the vocalist performs a program of tunes of varied provenance and styles accompanied by only a piano or guitar. THE HEART ALREADY KNOWS is Reid’s third CD. She’s also a pianist, and played as well as sang on her two previous projects, which featured some of the top L.A. musicians, including Ernie Watts, who appeared on THE LOVE I’M IN in 2011.

She released her first project, SENTIMENTAL MOOD, in 2000. Both CDs received wide acclaim from fans and critics, as well as airplay in several major U.S. markets. Reid performs as a duo and with her trio and quartet at jazz venues in the Los Angeles and Miami areas.  

Reid is a nuanced singer, attuned to the subtleties of a song’s lyrics and harmonic structure. The duo setting is the perfect vehicle for Reid’s jazz explorations and sexy, smoky, alto voice. “For me, the experience of making the CD was just as important as the outcome,” says Reid. “I hadn’t worked with four of the five musicians before. I wanted this to be a journey of discovery. The essence of jazz is spontaneity; therefore, little to no rehearsals worked well for this project. 

Although I didn’t know most of the musicians, I learned so much about them and their playing after spending hours in the studio, sharing ideas and creating music together.” Reid arranged most of the tunes on this disc.

PETER ELDRIDGE, the critically acclaimed vocalist, pianist, composer, and founding member of the internationally acclaimed vocal group New York Voices, produced the CD. Reid met Eldridge when the New York Voices were just starting out, and the group appeared at the college Reid was attending. Through the years, they became friends through various jazz events and conferences. Peter helped her pick the tunes and encouraged her to perform music outside the jazz genre. He also helped her choose the musicians, and, being a superb storyteller himself, he helped Reid with her approach to the material on this record.  

The musicians they chose are all at the top of their game and well-known leaders in their own right. FRED HERSCH’s star perhaps shines the brightest in this firmament of jazz luminaries. With a career that spans more than three decades, Hersch is a ten-time Grammy Award nominee and continues to earn jazz’s most prestigious awards, including the distinction of 2018 Jazz Pianist of the Year from the Jazz Journalists Association. Hersch accompanies Reid on three tunes. “No More” is a moody ballad often associated with Billie Holiday who said it was one of her favorite songs. Irene Kral also did a well-known version of it. Reid decided to do “If I Should Lose You” in the studio. Luckily, it’s one of Hersch’s favorite tunes. The duo performed the song in just one take. “Lazin’ Around” is an original by Hersch. The sweet lyrics, which were written by Hersch, belies the complicated melody that Reid sings flawlessly. 

TAYLOR EIGSTI is a young pianist who has already received two Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Solo and Best Instrumental Composition in 2006. He accompanies Reid on “Busy Being Blue,” a tune written by Eldridge and Jack Donohue. Reid, who is the Director of the Jazz Vocal Performance program and Associate Professor of jazz voice in the Studio Music and Jazz department at the Frost School of Music, relates “I sang this tune during the interview for the teaching position at Frost, and I was told the performance helped me get the job." Eigsti also plays on James Taylor’s “The Secret of Life” on which Reid really captures the philosophical nature of the lyrics. 

Reid is also backed by three stellar guitarists. PAUL MEYERS has played with a Who’s Who of jazz luminaries and released several critically acclaimed CDs of his own. He and Reid perform together on the Strayhorn/Ellington classic “Something to Live For.” Reid loves the song because it doesn’t use the typical AABA pattern and Ellington is one of her favorites. She also has a particular attachment to his music because her husband, Steve Reid, played trumpet in Mercer Ellington’s band for eight years. Reid and Meyers also do a very bluesy rendition of “Just A Lucky So and So.” 

Guitarist LARRY KOONSE is one of the busiest musicians on the L.A. jazz scene. He has appeared as a sideman on dozens of CDs as well as releasing his own projects. Reid and Koonse do a straight-ahead version of “Confessin,” a happy, upbeat love song that Reid likes for its wordplay. The two of them also perform “Two Grey Rooms,” a dark, imagistic Joni Mitchell tune arranged here by Eldridge.  

ROMERO LUBAMBO is a rising star Brazilian guitarist. A versatile musician, he plays everything from Brazilian rhythms to hard bop. He performs with Reid on “Endless Stars,” composed by Fred Hersch with lyrics by Norma Winstone. He also plays on “Minds of Their Own,” an Ivan Lins composition with lyrics by Peter Eldridge. As Reid relates, “Romero set the tempo, and we just went with it!” 

THE HEART ALREADY KNOWS is an intimate project that comprises a mix of standards, modern jazz compositions, and pop tunes that take on new life in the hands of these A-list musicians. Reid is a singer who approaches a song with the ear of a piano player and arranger. She can swing and be sexy while capturing the heart of a lyric.

Kate Reid vocals

Paul Meyers guitar (1,7)

Larry Koonse guitar (2,4)

Fred Hersch piano (3,9,11)

Romero Lubambo guitar (5,10)

Taylor Eigsti piano (6,8)

1. Something to Live For  (4:46)

2. Confessin’ (3:33)

3. No More  (3:17)

4. Two Grey Rooms  (4:15)

5. Endless Stars  (3:15)

6. Busy Being Blue  (7:02)

7. Just a Lucky So and So  (4:46)

8. Secret o’ Life  (3:58)

9. If I Should Lose You  (3:58)

10. Minds of Their Own  (5:13)

11. Lazin’ Around  (3:38)  

Produced by Peter Eldridge All songs arranged by Kate Reid  except Secret o’Life arranged by Taylor Eigsti & Kate Reid,  Two Grey Rooms arranged by Peter Eldridge, and Lazin’ Around arranged by Fred Hersch