Jazz pianist Hersh delivers brilliant performance at Drake University

One of the great jazz pianists of our day, Fred Hersh, played an eloquent solo concert Friday night in the Cosmopolitan Series of Civic Music at Drake University's Sheslow Auditorium.

Much of the concert was a tribute to Thelonious Monk, who would have been 88 this year, a good enough reason for a party for any master of the 88 keys.

Hersh is highly regarded for his ability to reinvent the standard tunes, but taking on the work of Monk, one of the great innovators in all of jazz, is no easy task, particularly as a solo pianist. Hersh was brilliant.

One of the main challenges of solo piano is that you have to be your own rhythm section and give the audience enough of the bass line, harmony and rhythm independent of the melody to make things hang together.

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