Fred Hersch: The Surrounding Green

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 can forge with other musicians. And to his and his bandmates' great credit, neither effort is mere recapitulation of, respectively, Songs From Home (Palmetto Records, 2020) or Whirl (Palmetto Records, 2010). Fred Hersch has been evolving as an artist for years, and this record reaffirms his ongoing growth.

The deceptively titled initial cut, "Plainsong," is proof positive of the progress he has made over the years. Yet the growth so obvious in these first few minutes becomes all the more palpable throughout these forty-one plus minutes. Hersch's maturation is noticeable particularly in the context of accompaniment with Drew Gress' double bass and Joey Baron's drums on Ornette Coleman's "Law Years." The three take their time to probe into the composition and never get in each other's way.

Slightly more than four minutes of that track allow Hersch, Gress and Baron to cover plenty of ground. The threesome moves in various directions with optimum efficiency. And it is readily apparent when the resolution of the title song arrives—with just the proper blend of delicacy and emphasis—that the feeling of anticipation is all the more welcome.

The intricacy of Fred Hersch and company's playing here is readily apparent (if not wholly transparent), including the ironic placing of "Anticipation" as the final track of the seven on The Surrounding Green (produced by Manfred Eicher). But that positioning carries multiple meanings insofar as the original follows three of the four cover songs .

This take on Egberto Gismonti's "Palhaco" is as jaunty as the interpretation of George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin's "Embraceable You" is restful. Gress sets a tone with his patient bass intro on the latter, while the comparably soft insistence Baron elicits from his kit on this ghostly rendition of Charlie Haden's "First Song" ratifies how edifying this musicianship is all around.

The outside material on The Surrounding Green serves as a diversion of a sort, akin to digressions off the main highway on a long car trip. As such, they are purposeful interludes that refresh and revivify in advance of a destination full of the quietly cheerful promise that is this LP's conclusion.