Fred Hersch

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Fred Hersch (Reykjavik Jazz Festival 2017)

Fred Hersch (born October 21, 1955 in Cincinnati , Ohio ) is an American jazz pianist and composer belonging to the New York jazz scene . Known as a crossover between jazz and classical music, the Bill Evans- influenced pianist has devoted himself to an impressionistic style.

biography

After Fred Hersch started playing the piano at the age of four, he attended the New England Conservatory in Boston as a young man until he graduated in 1977 . He then lived in New York , where he quickly became a sought-after pianist. At that time, Hersch appeared as an accompanying musician in band projects by Stan Getz , Joe Henderson , Jane Ira Bloom , Toots Thielemans , Gary Burton , Art Farmer and Charlie Haden . Soon Hersch also attracted international attention with his own compositions, band projects and especially with his solo programs, such as his albums with Monk or Rodgers and Hammerstein interpretations in 1996/97. So far, Fred Hersch has been involved in over 25 albums as a solo artist or band leader and in over a hundred albums as an accompanist or guest musician. He was the first musician to have the honor of performing with his solo piano program for a week in the famous New York jazz club Village Vanguard .

Hersch is known for narrative melodic improvisation in jazz. Various projects with musicians from the field of classical music - to name are the concert pianist Jeffrey Kahane or the violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg - or solo programs with various orchestras testify to the versatility of the pianist Hersch.

As a teacher, Hersch has been teaching at the New England Conservatory in Boston, the New School , the Manhattan School of Music and Western Michigan University for over ten years . One of his most famous students is the American pianist Brad Mehldau .

As one of the few homosexual jazz musicians who have personally come out in public, Hersch is involved in many projects for AIDS sufferers after his own HIV diagnosis . The proceeds from four of his CD releases are used to support various organizations financially.

The documentary "The Ballad of Fred Hersch" premiered in 2016 at the Full Frame Film Festival . His autobiography Good Things Happen Slowly was published by Crown Books / Random House in 2017.

Prizes and awards

Hersch has been nominated ten times for a Grammy , both for the best instrumental jazz recording and for the best instrumental composition. His 2015 album Fred Hersch Solo won a Coup de Coeur from the Charles Cros Academy as well as the French Grand Prix of the French Académie du Jazz . In 2003 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his compositions . In 2016, the Jazz Journalists Association named him “Jazz Pianist of the Year”.

Fred Hersch (2017)

Discographic notes

  • 1988 - Etc. ( Red Records ) with Jeff Hirshfield
  • 1993 - At Maybeck Vol. 31 (Concord) solo
  • 1994 - Last Night When We're Young (Classical Action) with Phil Woods , George Shearing , Rufus Reid
  • 1995 - Point in Time ( Enja ) with Dave Douglas
  • 1996 - Fred Hersch Plays Rogers and Hammerstein ( Nonesuch )
  • 1997 - Thelonious: Fred Hersch Plays Monk (Nonesuch)
  • 1998 - Let Yourself Go (Nonesuch) solo
  • 2000 - Songs without Words (Nonesuch)
  • 2010 - Alone at the Vanguard ( Palmetto , solo)
  • 2015 - Solo (Palmetto, solo)
  • 2016 - Sunday Night at the Vanguard (Palmetto, with John Hébert and Eric McPherson )
  • 2017 - Open Book (Palmetto, solo)
  • 2018 - Heartsongs (Sunnyside)
  • 2019 - Begin Again , with the WDR Bigband , arranged and directed by Vince Mendoza
  • 2020 - The Fred Hersch Trio: 10 Years / 6 Discs

Publications

  • 'Fred Hersch: Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In and Out of Jazz . Crown Archetype, 2017

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Ben Ratliff, Jazz and Pop Critic on Does Rhythm Overwhelm Melody? , New York Times January 12, 2009, accessed June 11, 2015
  2. ↑ Brief portrait (Jazz Guide Cologne)
personal data
SURNAME Hersch, Fred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Cincinnati