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3x3: Piano Trios: January 2020
Geir Åge Johnsen/Fredrik Sahlander/Bernt Moen 1+1=3 Losen Records 2019 What exactly does this title signify? It isn't quite clear, seeing as there are three players here and each counts as a positive one in any equation. Small mystery and all, though, it's a fun session brimming with good humor and smarts. The players here offer a mix of fresh compositions and old-school jazz staples, all offered with the same melodic charm and sharp dose of ...
read moreThe Fred Hersch Trio: 10 Years / 6 Discs
You might be surprised by pianist Fred Hersch's response to a near-death coma in 2008. Quoting from his memoir Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In And Out Of Jazz (Crown Archetype Press, 2017), “a confrontation with death brings home the preciousness of life... It was the newest, brightest, shining, most surprising, most uplifting feeling I had ever had." Listeners need not endure a two-month persistent vegetative state to induce a similar response. They need only listen to Hersch's output ...
read moreFred Hersch & the WDR Big Band: Begin Again
Throughout pianist Fred Hersch's long career, he has mostly worked in trios and other small units, rarely doing much with large ensembles. That makes this session of Hersch featured with Germany's WDR Big Band a special treat. They play a program of the pianist's compositions from various parts of his career, all arranged and conducted by Vince Mendoza. Mendoza's arrangements and the big band's excellent playing give a new depth and texture to Hersch's writing. On “Rain Waltz," ...
read moreFred Hersch: Making more out of less
In this episode, pianist, composer, educator and recording artist Fred Hersch tells how the scene has changed over the years ("people drink less now"), learning to be gracious ("the audience needs to have their experience independent of how you feel about it"), education ("You can spend $200,000 on a jazz performance degree and not make that much money in the next 10 years"), songwriting ("I try to write tunes"), self reflection (""If I want to be the person I can ...
read moreFred Hersch & the WDR Big Band: Begin Again
Pianist Fred Hersch, who needs no introduction to most well-informed jazz enthusiasts, is by and large known as a leader of trios and other small groups. Begin Again displays another side of Hersch's appreciable talents: nine of his handsome compositions, astutely recast by six-time Grammy Award winner Vince Mendoza and impressively performed by Germany's superb WDR Big Band. The diaphanous title song, which opens the album, is the only composition not previously recorded by Hersch. Any lingering ...
read moreDorothy & George Jacob: Putting Bray On The Jazz Map
Twenty years is old for a car and really old for a dog, but in jazz festival terms twenty years is perhaps not so long in the tooth. For a jazz festival twenty years means established, with the major storms of the early years weathered, a brand that people recognize and a heap of good will from the local community. Bray Jazz Festival (view 2019 events), having come through a few tempestuous patches and made a good many ...
read moreFred Hersch Trio: Fred Hersch Trio '97 @ The Village Vanguard
Pianist Fred Hersch has produced a steady stream of recordings in the last few years, both solo and with his current trio. The trio was featured on Live In Europe (Palmetto Records, 2018) and Sunday Night At The Vanguard (Palmetto Records, 2016). This album captures a special career moment for Hersch: his first appearance as leader at the venerable Village Vanguard, arguably the most storied jazz club in the history of the music. At the time his working ...
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