Fred Hersch has released fifteen albums as a leader over a career
spanning more than twenty years, two of which have earned him
Grammy nominations. Since relocating to New York in 1977 from
his native Cincinnati, he has been consistently in demand,
performing extensively with jazz legends Eddie Daniels, Art
Farmer, Stan Getz, Charlie Haden, Joe Henderson, Toots
Thielemans and others. In 1986 he formed his own trio, which has
made seven recordings and appears frequently at renowned venues
and festivals worldwide. This year the conservatory-trained Hersch
was described in The Atlantic Monthly as "...one of the most
sensitive and genuinely lyrical players in jazz."
Prominent in Hersch's recorded output is a series of acclaimed
"songbook" CDs, encompassing the works of Billy Strayhorn,
Rogers and Hammerstein, Johnny Mandel and Bill Evans. Hersch's
1996 Billy Strayhorn tribute Passion Flower (Nonesuch), an
innovative and moving treatment of some of Strayhorn's most
memorable compositions, received widespread critical acclaim.
Fred Hersch Plays Rogers & Hammerstein (Nonesuch), Hersch's
third solo project, was equally praised. His solo performance at the
1997 Oris London Jazz Festival was especially well-received: "his
transformation of familiar songs...testified to the emergence of
maybe the most complete jazz-derived piano improvising style on
the contemporary scene" (The Guardian).
With Thelonius: Fred Hersch Plays Monk, Hersch's most recent
Nonesuch recording, he examines works by one of the jazz world's
most legendary keyboard innovators. Previewed extensively in
concert performances last year, Hersch's latest solo outing was
praised as "a landmark album" by The Washington Post.
Hersch's extensive work raising money for AIDS causes found
musical expression in his 1994 recording Last Night When We
Were Young: The Ballad Album, which benefited Classical Action:
Performing Arts Against AIDS. On the newly-released Fred Hersch
& Friends: The Duo Album, he plays duets with twelve jazz
legends, including Tommy Flanagan, Joe Lovano, Lee Konitz and
Kenny Barron, also to benefit Classical Action.
Bill Frisell
Hailed as "the most significant and widely imitated guitarist to
emerge in jazz since the beginning of the 1980s..." (The New York
Time), Bill Frisell has over 80 recordings to his credit, including 11
as leader on Nonesuch Records. His broad palette of collaborators
includes Ginger Baker, Gavin Bryars, Don Byron, Elvis Costello,
Jerry Douglas, Marianne Faithful, Wayne Horvitz, Paul Motian and
John Zorn, among many others.
Frisell's Nonesuch discography ranges from original Buster Keaton
film scores, to covers of songs by Stephen Foster, Bob Dylan and
Madonna (Have a Little Faith), to jazz compositions intended as
soundtracks to Gary Larson cartoons (Quartet), to his most recent
collaboration with Jim Keltner and Viktor Krauss (Gone, Just like a
Train).
In 1997 Bill Frisell made his first-ever national television
appearance on "Sessions at West 54th," and the New Yorker
called him, "...the most distinctive stylist in contemporary jazz.."
This year Frisell's recording Nashville won the Downbeat Critics
Poll for "Album of the Year", and he received both a Critics Award
and an industry Award in the category of "Best Guitarist" at the
First Annual Jazz Awards, sponsored by the Knitting Factory and
the JAzz Journalists Association.
Bill Frisell was born in Baltimore and grew up in Denver, playing
clarinet in his high school band and discovering his love for the
guitar through his exposure to pop music on the radio. His great
enthusiasm for the Chicago Blues -- particularly the music of B.B.
King and Paul Butterfield -- led to his complex affinity for
contemporary American music. Frisell studied at the University of
Northern Colorado and at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
In 1978, he spent a year composing in Belgium, and then moved to
New York City, where he spent a year composing in collaboration
with some of the most creative talents of the downtown new music
scene. In 1989, Frisell moved to Seattle, where he continues to
make his home.
