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Lilly Hertzman
Lilly Hertzman is a Danish singer, songwriter and producer, who has received great reviews for creating evocative songs and soundscapes of a rare kind and with a personal expression and sound. Her inspirations are many and goes across multiple genres with jazz and singer- songwriter as the main ones. Her origins also cross borders, with a mother from Japan and a father from Denmark. She has played, recorded and collaborated with some of the finest, most talented and versatile creative musicians in Scandinavia, Europe and US.
She returns this Spring with her sixth studio album, Heartshaped, a deeply personal offering with roots reaching back more than a decade. Recorded in New York, Heartshaped (April 17th, 2026) revisits a set of eight unrecorded originals, brought to life alongside acclaimed pianist Aaron Parks, his longtime bass collaborator Thomas Morgan, and award-winning Korean drummer Jongkuk Kim.
Heartshaped explores ideas of connection, impermanence, and attentiveness — to oneself, to others, and to the natural world. The album’s title itself reflects Hertzman’s guiding concept: living with an awareness rooted in empathy and listening, where inner intuition and shared experience intersect.
While grounded in jazz, the music moves fluidly between singer-songwriter sensibilities, lyric-driven storytelling, and open, responsive ensemble playing. The choice of acclaimed musician Aaron Parks as pianist and co-producer is not haphazard: many of the tunes were first conceived in 2014, when they worked closely together in Denmark. Though the songs lay dormant for years, their eventual recording is unforced and timely.
Before the release of Heartshaped, Lilly Hertzman has released five acclaimed albums. Two with own lyrics in English, Before The Crossing (2005) and Love Is A Sound (2009). Her third album, and the first with lyrics in Danish, was titled Menneskeblomst (2016), a selfinvented word that means Humanflower. The duoalbum, Tenderly feat. Gilad Hekselman (2017) , received rave reviews from USA, Germany and Denmark, and was chosen as TOP 5 BEST VOCAL RELEASE 2017 by The New York City Jazz Record. Her fifth album, The Song Is You (2021) was released by Challenge Records and features Gilad Hekselman on guitar and Kirk Knuffke on Cornet. It also received much critical acclaim.
Lilly Hertzman is educated from the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark, from the department of music & movement, and has played, recorded and collaborated with among others Lew Soloff (US), Aaron Parks (US), Gilad Hekselman (ISR), Kirk Knuffke (US), Gustaf Ljunggren (S), Anders AC Christensen (DK), Jonas Berg (S), Jeppe Kjellberg (DK), Thommy Andersson (S), Krister Jonsson (S), Jacob Fischer (DK).
Awards
"TOP 5 BEST VOCAL RELEASE 2017! " - The New York City Jazz Record
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LILLY: Tenderly featuring Gilad Hekselman
by Jakob Baekgaard
It all starts with a song. Two people and song. Gilad and Lilly. Guitarist and singer. One visiting Denmark as an artist in residence and the other living there. One among the foremost exponents of modern jazz guitar and the other an acclaimed vocalist and singer/songwriter, but still a secret outside her country. Here they are on the album Tenderly. The result of a day's work in the studio with songs that are the work of a ...
Continue Reading"TOP 5 BEST VOCAL RELEASE 2017! " - The New York City Jazz Record
“Lillys and Hekselman’s arrangements reach almost the impossible of regenerating standards like the title track, “You Go To My Head”, “Skylark” and “Day Dream” to the point of ownership rather than reinterpretation” — THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD, Feb 2018 Issue
“The voice and the guitar is like a match made in heaven” — ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 STARS in Danish music magazine GAFFA
"Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass set the bar high for guitar-vocal duos. Danish singer LILLY (-Ann Hertzman) and guitarist Gilad Hekselman touch that bar with Tenderly."” — ALL ABOUT JAZZ
Chet Baker
trumpet and vocals
Chick Corea
piano
Bill Evans
piano
Billie Holiday
vocals
Shirley Horn
piano
Abbey Lincoln
vocals
Pat Metheny
guitar
Joni Mitchell
vocals
