Jazz Articles about Fred Hersch

About Fred Hersch

Interview

Fred Hersch: A Lifetime Of Meditation At The Piano

by Frank Housh
July 17, 2025

Fred Hersch has spent nearly seven decades mediating at the piano. In his candid memoir, Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In And Out Of Jazz (Crown Archetype Press, 2017), Hersch described how he creates music. He wrote: I sit down, settle onto the piano stool, and see what kind of mood I'm in. Sometimes when playing with my trio I will ask them what they feel like starting with--a nice surprise for me, as ...

Album Review

Fred Hersch: The Surrounding Green

Read "The Surrounding Green" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
June 28, 2025

Taken together, Fred Hersch's first two albums for ECM Records can be seen as a bid for recognition as the preeminent pianist in contemporary jazz. The solo work of Silent, Listening (ECM, 2024) complements the trio work on The Surrounding Green, their individual and combined impact heightened by release on the vaunted label in successive years. As much as the former depicts Hersch's touch for nuance, the latter is a display of the equally subtle mutual empathy he ...

Album Review

Fred Hersch: The Surrounding Green

Read "The Surrounding Green" reviewed by Jack Kenny

by Jack Kenny
June 27, 2025

Fred Hersch's The Surrounding Green , his third release for ECM Records, is a testament to the art of the piano trio, combining lyrical introspection with sophisticated interplay. Recorded in May 2024 at Lugano's Auditorio Stelio Molo under Manfred Eicher's meticulous production, the album features Hersch on piano, Drew Gress on double bass and Joey Baron on drums. Their decades-honed chemistry gives the album musical maturity, creating a sound that is both intimate and expansive. The album's seven ...

Album Review

Fred Hersch: The Surrounding Green

Read "The Surrounding Green" reviewed by Neil Duggan

by Neil Duggan
June 20, 2025

In a world where turmoil arrives almost instantly via notifications on our devices, a Fred Hersch album feels like sanctuary--an invitation to slow down and listen deeply. The Surrounding Green, his third release for ECM, once again finds the pianist in tandem with producer Manfred Eicher, the ideal partner to bring focus to the pianist's gentle improvisational and instrumental artistry. Widely regarded as one of jazz's most distinctive and enduring voices, Hersch's creative vision has influenced the genre ...

Live Review

Fred Hersch and Donny McCaslin at Smoke Jazz Club

by Paul Reynolds
March 22, 2025

Fred Hersch with Donny McCaslin Smoke Jazz and Supper Club New York City March 14, 2025 The pairing of pianist Fred Hersch and saxophonist Donny McCaslin at Smoke Jazz & Supper Club was a dazzling demonstration of musical chemistry--a duo performance that far exceeded the sum of its parts. Both players listened closely and built solos architecturally, yet with careful economy. Their riveting duets, mostly on standards, felt almost composed, so tightly bound ...

Live Review

Fred Hersch al Teatro Golden di Palermo

by Maurizio Zerbo
February 27, 2025

Fred Hersch Teatro Golden Catania Jazz Palermo 25 febbraio 2025 Ascoltare un concerto di Fred Hersch è sempre un'esperienza emozionante, che tocca le zone più remote del cuore. Il set palermitano esemplifica la forza evocativa della sua musica, suscitando pathos in chi la ascolta. Reinterpretando alcuni capolavori del repertorio musicale afroamericano, il pianista statunitense fa del suo strumento una corda dell'anima: una voce sussurrata prima che un suono limpido, per sublimare la forza del ...

So You Don't Like Jazz

Don't Like Jazz? Give Me Six Minutes And Forty-Two Seconds

by Frank Housh
February 20, 2025

Don't like jazz? I think I understand. For many, jazz seems hyper-intellectual and inaccessible and, to be fair, it too often is. At its best, however, jazz represents the heart of the creative instinct; it began by taking popular songs and changing their harmony and melodies. This “variations on a theme" is nothing new. What jazz added was a unique, improvisational approach that discarded existing rules of interpretation, transforming familiar tunes into something new and different. Let's take ...