NEW RELEASE: Kristen Lee Sergeant’s ‘Falling’ is due out February 25, 2022 via Tiger Turn

Kristen Lee Sergeant presents magical concept album ‘Falling’ due out February 25, 2022 via Tiger Turn

Release show at Joe’s Pub on March 31, 2022

Watch the Lyric Video for First Single “Let’s Fall”

Tiger Turn Productions is delighted to announce the February 25, 2022 release of Falling, a new album by effervescent vocalist Kristen Lee Sergeant.  This wide-ranging new release further enhances the singer’s well-earned reputation for artistic versatility; here, she combines the roles of vocalist, composer, artist and curator in a striking departure from her previous two critically acclaimed albums. Accompanied by Jeb Patton (piano), Hannah Marks (bass), Jay Sawyer (drums), Jody Redhage Ferber (cello) and Ted Nash (soprano saxophone), Sergeant surrenders herself entirely to the concept of ‘falling’ in a daringly creative leap of faith. 

Based in New York City, both her debut and sophomore releases (Inside Out and Smolder) were awarded DownBeat Magazine ‘Editor’s Pick’ designations and she was praised for “moments of engaging drama, whether she’s seductively sliding into a note with a near-whisper, delivering a breathy revelation or belting out a lyric with full-throated muscularity”. That variety of musical color derives from Sergeant’s rich tapestry of influences that stretch far across artists (Dianne Reeves, Judy Garland, Joni Mitchell and Fiona Apple) and art forms (jazz, theater, opera and 1970s pop). 

Falling, her third studio album, sees a change of direction as Sergeant revisits her formative feel for musical drama. A wholly-immersive experience, Falling is a full-bodied concept album that brings listeners on an extraordinary musical journey, touching on numerous emotional high points along the way. Informed by the precarious times we’re in, but never bogged down by it, Sergeant’s latest is an exploration of the feeling, the state, and even the mythos surrounding the act, and the gravity, of ‘falling’. 

The aptly titled “Let’s Fall” sets the scene, as Sergeant drops headfirst into a dusky night-time landscape full of nocturnal thrills. It flashes through vaudevillian chansonnery and bristling quintet textures, where Patton emerges as a stellar soloist. Sergeant’s natural penchant for storytelling appears on the mythical cathartic journey of  “Sisyphus”, where she tells the age-old tale of “pushing that rock up that hill”. Perpetual resistance is eventually overtaken by a sense of acceptance, as the tune settles into a bobbing, lilting feel that transports the musicians higher and higher.

Sergeant composed “Infinity Blues” after meeting an astronaut, and this piece begins its flight with Nash’s searching soprano solo. “Swing doesn’t have to be retro,” Sergeant notes. She sings, “I’ve got the infinity blues / I want no weight in my shoes”, epitomising the song’s essential, existential drifting through life.

Kristen Lee Sergeant by Jordan Frey

“Chiaroscuro” is an allusion to Renaissance art captured in music, with well-crafted counterpoint featuring starkly lit moments that wax and wane throughout. Next up, the ingenuity of Sergeant the lyricist comes to the fore as “Honey” squeezes out a stream of rich, gooey imagery over a classic get-up blues, where bassist Hannah Marks really lays it down. 

More strong imagery flows out of the ensemble on the fluttering “Birdsong”, as Sergeant warns us of the dangers of settling for illusory comfort when freedom is still an option. “The prize isn’t worth the game,” Sergeant reflects on “Better Off”, but this is an altogether more personal affair, that’s fleetingly brief yet packed with lingering sentiment. “Aren’t I naked enough for you?” she sings, pointedly.

Myths and legends abound on this record – next is the bold, dramatic “Orpheus”. What might Hades sound like? Drummer Jay Sawyer gives us some sort of answer, grooving through triple time into a head-nodding pocket surrounded by Greek chorus-style vocal arrangements. “Autumn Nocturne” then takes it down a notch in a cool, elegant presentation of Sergeant the vocal technician. The energetic span of “Black Magic” is fuelled by Nash and Sergeant’s warring trades and vaults into unhinged surrender. 

With elements of jazz, musical theater, chamber music and 1970’s pop dotting her vast musical landscape, Sergeant paints a vivid musical portrait that is easy to get lost in. “From Greek myths to outer space, I hope to bring listeners on a rewarding and thoughtful journey in sound,” Sergeant reflects. “And I get to be their Virgil, stumbling down ahead of them.” Conceived as a rich multidisciplinary work, partnered with the recording is an immersive conceptual concert, scheduled to take place on March 31 at Joe’s Pub within The Public Theater in New York City.

1. Let’s Fall

2. Sisyphus

3. Birdsong

4. Chiaroscuro

5. Honey

6. Infinity Blues

7. Better Off

8. Orpheus

9. Autumn Nocturne (Josef Myrow, Kim Gannon)

10. That Old Black Magic (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer)

All music by Kristen Lee Sergeant unless otherwise noted

Kristen Lee Sergeant (vocals, song, arrangement)

Jeb Patton (piano)

Hannah Marks (bass)

Jay Sawyer (drums)

Jody Redhage Ferber (cello)

and Ted Nash (soprano saxophone)

Kristen Lee Sergeant Website

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