Fred Hersch
Proclaimed by Vanity Fair magazine, “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade or so,” Fred Hersch balances his internationally recognized instrumental skills with significant achievements as a composer, bandleader, and theatrical conceptualist, as well as remaining an in-demand collaborator with other noted bandleaders and vocalists. As a solo pianist (he was the first artist in the 75-year history of New York's legendary Village Vanguard to play week-long engagements as a solo pianist - his second featured run is documented on the 2011 release, Alone at the Vanguard); as leader of a widely praised trio whose Whirl found its way onto numerous 2010 best-recordings-of-the-year lists; and as the impetus behind the ambitious 2011 production, “My Coma Dreams,” a full-evening work for 11 instruments, actor/singer and animation/multimedia - Hersch has fully lived up to the approbation of the New York Times who, in a featured Sunday Magazine article, praised him as “singular among the trailblazers of their art, a largely unsung innovator of this borderless, individualistic jazz – a jazz for the 21st century.” He was nominated for two 2011 Grammy Awards for Alone at the Vanguard - for Best Jazz Album and Best Improvised Jazz Solo; these are his fourth and fifth nominations. His newest trio album is a 2-CD set Alive at the Vanguard and it has been garnering wide critical acclaim as one of his best releases in his many-year recording career. It has been awarded the 2012 Grand Prix du Disque by l'Académie Charles Cros in France.
In addition to his more than three-dozen recordings as a leader/co-leader, his numerous awards include a 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for composition, and a Grammy® nomination for Best Instrumental Composition, as well as two Grammy® nominations for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance. Hersch has featured himself as either a solo performer or at the helm of varied small ensembles, which in addition to his trio, include a quintet, as well as his "Pocket Orchestra" featuring an unconventional line-up of piano, trumpet, voice and percussion. Hersch is considered to be the most prolific and celebrated solo jazz pianist of his generation. In 2006, Palmetto released the solo CD Fred Hersch in Amsterdam: Live at the Bimhuis and 2009 welcomed his eighth solo disc, Fred Hersch Plays Jobim, cited as one of the year's Top Ten jazz releases by NPR and the Wall Street Journal. Alone won the "Coup de Coeur" de l'Académie Charles Cros in France and 2011 also saw Hersch place 4th in the Downbeat Critic's Poll and win as Jazz Pianist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association.
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Album Review
- Fred Hersch Trio '97 @ The Village Vanguard by Doug Collette
Interview
Radio & Podcasts
Multiple Reviews
Album Review
- Songs From Home by Pierre Giroux
- Songs From Home by Victor L. Schermer
- Songs from Home by Angelo Leonardi
- Breath By Breath by Pierre Giroux
Multiple Reviews
Radio & Podcasts
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Jim Gailloreto
saxophone, tenorEthan Iverson
pianoBartosz Hadala
pianoEarl MacDonald
pianoMike Holober
pianoTobin Mueller
pianoAntonio Mazzei
pianoPasquale Stafano
pianoRoger Paulson
pianoMaria Schafer
voice / vocalsTim Bruer
pianoThomas Lüscher
pianoSteve Boudreau
pianoDaniel Bulatkin
pianoPhotos
Concert Schedule
Album Discography
The Miss
From: For NowBy Fred Hersch
Whirl
From: Fred Hersch SoloBy Fred Hersch
West Virginia Rose / Home Fries
From: FloatingBy Fred Hersch