Jazz Articles about Fred Hersch

Let Yourself Go: The Lives of Fred Hersch

by Victor L. Schermer
February 6, 2009

Fred Hersch Let Yourself Go: The Lives of Fred Hersch AHA! DVD 2008Fred Hersch has grown into one of the great modern jazz pianists. He's also a master teacher and a distinctive composer. His historic week as the first musician to perform solo at the Village Vanguard in New York marked his ascension from one of many fine jazz pianists to the ranks of those few who “make a difference." He has ...

The Fred Hersch Trio: "Kind of Blue" Turns 50 at the Kimmel Center, Philadelphia

by Victor L. Schermer
December 15, 2008

Fred Hersch TrioKimmel CenterPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaDecember 8, 2008

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts features an ongoing series called “Jazz Up Close" in the Perelman Theater. Its coordinator, Danilo Perez, has arranged a series of outstanding concerts featuring top musicians performing in various jazz idioms, with post-intermission conversations about the particular genre embodied in that performance. Several events in this multi-year ongoing series were most enjoyable, and this one was no exception. Honoring and ...

Fred Hersch Trio: Night And The Music

by AAJ Italy Staff
June 26, 2007

Grazie all’attività meritoria di label indipendenti come la Palmetto, Fred Hersch continua da qualche anno ad incidere con puntuale regolarità. Una discografia la sua che si sta facendo anno dopo anno sempre più corposa, ancorché contrassegnata dall’alto livello di creatività. Eppure - incredibilmente - il pianista statunitense incarna ancora la tipica figura di musician’s musician: artista amato dai colleghi ma poco noto al grande pubblico Tecnica sopraffina, immenso talento, rara capacità di procurare con poche note profonde emozioni in chi ...

Fred Hersch Trio: Night and the Music

by Victor L. Schermer
May 27, 2007

Pianist Fred Hersch is proving himself to be not only a solid mainstream jazz pianist but also an imaginative and creative musical force. His Leaves of Grass (Palmetto, 2005), with vocalist Kurt Elling broke new ground by setting the poetry of Walt Whitman to written and improvised musical composition incorporating jazz and traditional “heartland American motifs. Fred Hersch Live at the Bimhuis (Palmetto, 2006) offered a panoply of solo piano music at a high level of sophistication and technique.

The Fred Hersch Trio: Night and the Music

by Riel Lazarus
May 19, 2007

Although there are no set formulas for success or achievement in jazz, there are certainly a few “legs-up and “add-ons. In the case of the trio, one such advantage is that of comfort and familiarity between the members. With these in play, the notes begin to blend and fall seamlessly in line: three voices turn to one. And while such synergy is relatively rare, look no further than The Fred Hersch Trio's Night and the Music for a prime example. ...

Fred Hersch: Personal Favorites

by AAJ Italy Staff
February 20, 2007

Un Fred Hersch per l’ennesima volta in forma smagliante, per rileggere in totale relax sette standard e cinque sue splendide composizioni. Benché lontano dai clamori della grande industria discografica, il pianista statunitense riesce da qualche anno ad incidere con buona regolarità, per regalarci dischi destinati a lasciare una segno profondo nell’ascoltatore. Fantasia; magistero tecnico; interiorizzazione profonda degli evergreen interpretati; raffinato pensiero armonico, che si sostanzia attraverso un solismo discreto e sussurrato. Sono alcune delle caratteristiche principali del suo ricco pianismo ...

Fred Hersch: In Amsterdam: Live at the Bimhuis

by Brian P. Lonergan
May 20, 2006

This live recording offers an exquisite sixty minutes of solo piano. In a mix of originals and standards, Fred Hersch's relaxed and loose approach (he didn't know he was being recorded) yields tunes that feel comfortably deconstructed--the ballads especially have a spacious air to them--and freshly re-imagined. Hersch's own voice is always paramount. It's as if, to give one example, he weren't playing the Hoagy Carmichael standard “The Nearness of You, but one of his own ballads that happened to ...