Thirteen Ways
by Michael G. Nastos
Put pianist Fred Hersch, clarinetist Michael Moore, and percussionist Gerry Hemingway together in a setting where anything goes, and you get three improvisational masters coming together as one, and playing it many more than Thirteen Ways. This trio collectively perform chamber-like jazz with traditional flair, harmonic character, and a united intent of purpose. The middle of the CD features a series of duets: the lower-dynamic clarinet and piano conversation "I Connected," the dancing steel drum and clarinet in "Steel & Clarinet" (a liltingly lovely alto sax and piano take on the standard "Speak Low"), and the kinetic, bouncy and fluid piano and drum kit treatment of "Star Eyes," with a calypso drum solo. The title track is a 16-plus-minute tour de force magnum opus that is divided into 13 sections, each inspired by individual poems that were attached to the score. It ranges from broodingly dark, two-chord piano, vibrant clarinet solo, furious clarinet and piano, solo piano, more steel drums, overblown bass clarinet, modal piano, fluttering clarinet, and Steve Reich-like minimal piano. The finest of Hersch's writing comes out on "Swamp Thang," with the slinkiest, sneakiest, snake-like clarinet and piano line, with wondrous brush work, and deserving of a big-time wow! "Brunheiras" is more a rubato ballad merging to a 6/8 figure, Moore again sounding a bird-like fluttering, while other standards, such as Monk's "Boo Boo's Birthday," and Jelly Roll Morton's "Mr. Jelly Lord" are done quite faithfully, singing with a respect worthy of aThanksgiving repast. Hersch fans will be pleasantly surprised by this effort, people who know Moore from his work with Clusone Trio will summarily be anxious to own this, and Hemingway, at the top of his game, can really do no wrong with this infinitely expressive combo. Highly recommended.
Fred Hersch
Plays Rodgers & Hammerstein
by Scott Yanow
Fred Hersch grew up loving the show tunes of Rodgers & Hammerstein, so he took advantage of the opportunity to pay tribute to the songwriters. This solo piano set mixes together some standards (most notably "It Might As Well Be Spring" and "The Surrey with the Fringe On Top") with some lesser-known but worthwhile tunes, including "Loneliness of Evening" and "I Have Dreamed." Hersch's harmonically advanced yet melodic style transforms even the most unlikely tunes into high-quality jazz.
Fred Hersch Pocket Orchestra
Live At Jazz Standard
by Michael G. Nastos
Ever the restless artist, pianist Fred Hersch wastes no time moving from one project to another. But he's termed this one "unintentional", having played with his "Pocket Orchestra" (in reality a quartet) only one other time, and that was the evening prior to these recordings at Jazz Standard in New York City. Stripping down the ensemble to barebones with no bassist, Hersch is joined by veteran drummer Richie Barshay, the excellent trumpeter Ralph Alessi, and Australian vocalist Jo Lawry. The music sports ethereal, wistful qualities at times, and in other instances, playful, prosaic, ethnic, and curious ones. Ever mindful of the deeper spirit of the heart, Hersch is consistently able to excavate deep emotions from the wellspring of timeless beauty, ancient traditions, and always the true spirit of modern jazz. "Stuttering" kicks off the set, and it's one of those irresistible pieces that commands your attention from the first note to the last, with its mixed meter navigation based in 3/4 time, unison piano, muted trumpet, and vocal lines, a daunting swing, the complex made simple, and adding a smidgen of funk. Hersch's famous "Song Without Words" is a samba with spiritual implications, Alessi's bright trumpet identifies the bluesy da-da song "Down Home," and an Afro-Cuban bounce tacked onto a New Orleans shuffle with Lawry and Hersch's quick, maximized staccato phrases enhances "Free Flying." Norma Winstone's lyrics are soulfully sung by Lawry in the innocent, breathless, light hearted way they were written on the waltz swing ballad "Invitation to the Dance" and the unrequited, sweet, Valentine's Day invitation "A Wish." Lawry sings and recites M.J. Salter's "what did you think?" poem; "Light Years," uses wordless scat on the fun and impish tune "Lee's Dream," one Bill Evans would enjoy; la-la's along during the more ECM like, Native American elements of "Child's Song," and hums in reserved, reverent repast aside Hersch for the Spanish tinged paean/prayer "Canzona." Each piece uniquely tells its own story, with Alessi's constantly inventive and listenable horn positively influencing the sound of Hersch's wise and wary piano stylings. Another successful project in a long line of them, it is a very fine example of how Hersch continually expands his horizons beyond standard fare and tradition, making his own history with every unique idea he is still capable of fathoming after all these years.
Fred Hersch
Thelonious: Plays Monk
By C. Michael Bailey
Track Listing:
'Round Midnight, In Walked Bud, Crepuscule with Nellie/Reflections, Think of One, Ask Me Now, Evidence, Five Vies of Misterioso, Let´s Cool One, Bemsha Swing, Light Blue/Pannonica, I Mean You, 'Round Midnight Reprise
I had the opportunity to see the Fred Hersch Trio perform at the Wildwood Jazz Festival (Little Rock) in 1996. At the time I was unfamiliar with him and thus had no expectations of his performance. I found him to be a precise performer and exceptional arranger. His trio was razor sharp, sculpting standards and originals with the direction of his innovative arrangements. One of the highlights he and his trio performed was Monk?s "In Walked Bud". A year later I was happy to read in downbeat that Hersch had a Monk project in the works which was released in January.
Thelonious: Fred Hersch Plays Monk is one of the most unique treatments of Monks music I have heard. A critical juxtaposition can be made to Marcus Roberts? very traditional treatment of Monk. Where Roberts comes off a fundamentalist, Hersch comes off an impressionist. To mature this metaphor: if Monk?s music is a collection of water lilies, then Hersch plays the part of Monet performing them, painting them.
Hersch as impressionist is best illustrated on "?Round Midnight" which opens with an upper register whisper of the ballad melody. The entire piece is played lightly, almost ethereally, with a minimum of arrangement. It is played as if almost in a daydream. I can imagine "Five Views of Misterioso" being the result of Debussy interpreting Monk?s most famous blues while slumming on the Left Bank. Hersch plays the minimalist on "Misterioso, altering the essence of the song with each consideration. He plays with a light touch that is never aggressive and always sensitive.
A brief digression: Hersch is no blues player. This fact is illustrated in the fact that "Misterioso" aside, Hersch plays none of Monk?s hard blues ("Straight, No Chaser", "Blue Monk"). Also, the blues are conspicuously absent from his most recent recordings, Live at Maybeck, Passion Flower, and Plays Rodgers and Hammerstein. He is, however, a ballad and light standard player nonparallel. Fred Hersch is to ballad playing what Gene Harris is to blues playing.
There are songs on Thelonious that Hersch does play pretty straight. "In Walked Bud" is precise and rollicking, as well as "I Mean You." "Let?s Cool One" is a minimalists dream, evolving from a right hand, single note presentation of the theme through an insinuating left hand who finally meets the right in the sparest of bass lines. "Bemsha Swing" is a Monk walk in Central Park, moderately paced and tasteful.
Tasteful. That is how to describe this entire record. I should like to hear a Hersch recording of Miles Davis? most popular ballads. I hope he records one.
Fred Hersch
In Amsterdam: Live At The Bimhuis
By Brian P. Lonergan
Track Listing:
I had the opportunity to see the Fred Hersch Trio perform at the Wildwood Jazz Festival (Little Rock) in 1996. At the time I was unfamiliar with him and thus had no expectations of his performance. I found him to be a precise performer and exceptional arranger. His trio was razor sharp, sculpting standards and originals with the direction of his innovative arrangements. One of the highlights he and his trio performed was Monk?s "In Walked Bud". A year later I was happy to read in downbeat that Hersch had a Monk project in the works which was released in January.
Thelonious: Fred Hersch Plays Monk is one of the most unique treatments of Monks music I have heard. A critical juxtaposition can be made to Marcus Roberts? very traditional treatment of Monk. Where Roberts comes off a fundamentalist, Hersch comes off an impressionist. To mature this metaphor: if Monk?s music is a collection of water lilies, then Hersch plays the part of Monet performing them, painting them.
Hersch as impressionist is best illustrated on "?Round Midnight" which opens with an upper register whisper of the ballad melody. The entire piece is played lightly, almost ethereally, with a minimum of arrangement. It is played as if almost in a daydream. I can imagine "Five Views of Misterioso" being the result of Debussy interpreting Monk?s most famous blues while slumming on the Left Bank. Hersch plays the minimalist on "Misterioso, altering the essence of the song with each consideration. He plays with a light touch that is never aggressive and always sensitive.
A brief digression: Hersch is no blues player. This fact is illustrated in the fact that "Misterioso" aside, Hersch plays none of Monk?s hard blues ("Straight, No Chaser", "Blue Monk"). Also, the blues are conspicuously absent from his most recent recordings, Live at Maybeck, Passion Flower, and Plays Rodgers and Hammerstein. He is, however, a ballad and light standard player nonparallel. Fred Hersch is to ballad playing what Gene Harris is to blues playing.
There are songs on Thelonious that Hersch does play pretty straight. "In Walked Bud" is precise and rollicking, as well as "I Mean You." "Let?s Cool One" is a minimalists dream, evolving from a right hand, single note presentation of the theme through an insinuating left hand who finally meets the right in the sparest of bass lines. "Bemsha Swing" is a Monk walk in Central Park, moderately paced and tasteful.
Tasteful. That is how to describe this entire record. I should like to hear a Hersch recording of Miles Davis? most popular ballads. I hope he records one.
Fred Hersch
In Amsterdam: Live At The Bimhuis
By Brian P. Lonergan
Track Listing:
A Lark; The Nearness of You; Evidence; At the Close of the Day; O Grande Amor; The Peacocks; Don't Blame Me; Valentine.
This live recording offers an exquisite sixty minutes of solo piano. In a mix of originals and standards, Fred Hersch's relaxed and loose approach (he didn't know he was being recorded) yields tunes that feel comfortably deconstructed—the ballads especially have a spacious air to them—and freshly re-imagined. Hersch's own voice is always paramount. It's as if, to give one example, he weren't playing the Hoagy Carmichael standard "The Nearness of You, but one of his own ballads that happened to borrow a few building blocks from Carmichael's song. The overall impression is less that of a series of jazz tunes with markedly different identities, but a suite of improvised solo piano divided into discreet movements.
In Amsterdam reaches its zenith with the fourth and fifth of the eight tracks, Hersch's original ballad "At the Close of the Day and his vast-roving cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "O Grande Amor. The former, as its title suggests, is a reflective piece, but also exploratory, using successions of rich harmonies and pronounced contrast between the high and low register of the piano. "O Grande Amor is reminiscent of Keith Jarrett's more inspired solo excursions, passing through angst and calm, searching through shadows and sunlight, and finally arriving at a falling Latin vamp to close.
This may be a stumper of a jazz trivia question in the years to come: Who was the first pianist to have a week-long run of solo performances at the Village Vanguard? The honor belongs not to any of jazz's elder statesmen, but Fred Hersch himself, who made this bit of history the first week of March, 2006.
Hersch approached the piano with a long list of possible tunes, from which he selected the set's varied program. It included his "atmospheric medley of Russ Freeman's "The Wind into Alec Wilder's "Moon and Sand, a bouncy jaunt through Billy Strayhorn's "U.M.M.G. (Upper Manhattan Medical Group) and Joni Mitchell's "My Old Man, on which he kept the melody intact over dissonant jazz harmonies below and seemed to have the most fun of the set. On "I'll Be Seeing You, Hersch made a case for himself as one of the premier ballad players today, with light, sprinkled right-hand lines, dark pillows of left-hand chords, and dynamics shifting at an impulse.
This live recording offers an exquisite sixty minutes of solo piano. In a mix of originals and standards, Fred Hersch's relaxed and loose approach (he didn't know he was being recorded) yields tunes that feel comfortably deconstructed—the ballads especially have a spacious air to them—and freshly re-imagined. Hersch's own voice is always paramount. It's as if, to give one example, he weren't playing the Hoagy Carmichael standard "The Nearness of You, but one of his own ballads that happened to borrow a few building blocks from Carmichael's song. The overall impression is less that of a series of jazz tunes with markedly different identities, but a suite of improvised solo piano divided into discreet movements.
In Amsterdam reaches its zenith with the fourth and fifth of the eight tracks, Hersch's original ballad "At the Close of the Day and his vast-roving cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "O Grande Amor. The former, as its title suggests, is a reflective piece, but also exploratory, using successions of rich harmonies and pronounced contrast between the high and low register of the piano. "O Grande Amor is reminiscent of Keith Jarrett's more inspired solo excursions, passing through angst and calm, searching through shadows and sunlight, and finally arriving at a falling Latin vamp to close.
This may be a stumper of a jazz trivia question in the years to come: Who was the first pianist to have a week-long run of solo performances at the Village Vanguard? The honor belongs not to any of jazz's elder statesmen, but Fred Hersch himself, who made this bit of history the first week of March, 2006.
Hersch approached the piano with a long list of possible tunes, from which he selected the set's varied program. It included his "atmospheric medley of Russ Freeman's "The Wind into Alec Wilder's "Moon and Sand, a bouncy jaunt through Billy Strayhorn's "U.M.M.G. (Upper Manhattan Medical Group) and Joni Mitchell's "My Old Man, on which he kept the melody intact over dissonant jazz harmonies below and seemed to have the most fun of the set. On "I'll Be Seeing You, Hersch made a case for himself as one of the premier ballad players today, with light, sprinkled right-hand lines, dark pillows of left-hand chords, and dynamics shifting at an impulse.
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