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Also this issue: The Fantom Melvin Beat Box The Orange Peels Red Bull Music Academy 2002 The Rezillos |
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June 20-26, 2002
music
 Alone at the top: Hersch is considered one of the greatest living solo pianists. |
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Few conventions in jazz are as daunting as that of the solo piano performance. Its demands are technical, spiritual, lyrical, athletic. And the burden of influence -- precedents set by Art Tatum, Erroll Garner, Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, among others -- can often be too much to bear. So it’s almost a matter of course that the jazz universe should take special note of a peerless practitioner like Fred Hersch, who fulfills every requirement of the medium, and sounds like none of the above.
Growing up in Cincinnati, Hersch was inundated with classical music. He played the piano from age 4; he recalls spending countless hours trying to emulate, on his family's Baldwin, the sound of Glenn Gould playing Bach. Jazz came into the picture during adolescence -- he claims that its primary appeal was the promise of "freedom within limits." Essentially, this phrase defines the Fred Hersch creative creed. "If you're playing a tune," he says, "whether it's a [Thelonious] Monk tune or whatever, there's a frame. You know what the elements are. And within that frame I feel very free. I like to smoosh the form, not block everything off in choruses, tell a long story."
Hersch has told many such stories, in fact, during his distinguished career. Soon after he moved to New York in 1977, he found ample work with such notable elders as Art Farmer, Joe Henderson and Stan Getz. Yet his debut as a leader, a trio record with Marc Johnson and Joey Baron, came at the relatively mature age of 30. This was 1984 -- coincidentally, the year that Hersch was diagnosed with HIV. In the years since, the pianist has thrived, recording nearly two dozen critically praised albums and performing major concerts in solo, trio and quintet formats. As an educator at the New School, Hersch has made lasting impressions on many auspicious talents -- including, but hardly limited to, the wünderkinds Ethan Iverson and Brad Mehldau.
In his own playing, Hersch evinces an incredibly strong sense of phrase and focus; his improvised statements rarely seem ill-conceived or partially formed. His tone at the piano is clear, bright, warm -- a sound almost instantly recognizable as his. For this reason, among others, the solo recital has become Hersch's stock in trade. He has recorded a series of compelling solo statements on Nonesuch; his most recent is the three-disc project Songs Without Words. On it the pianist expertly renders material by Cole Porter, Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, Benny Golson, Duke Ellington and -- in an unusual stroke -- Fred Hersch. The result is an eclectic and inspiring program; Hersch points with pride to his ability to personalize both standard and original songs. The New York Times hardly overstated the case when it attributed to Hersch "a solo piano concept second to none in jazz."
After a long and fruitful association with the solo piano format, however, Hersch has resolved to diversify his portfolio. In May he led a trio, featuring bassist Drew Gress and drummer Nasheet Waits, for a week at the Village Vanguard; selected performances will be released in January on a Nonesuch CD. The fall will yield a duet album with the English singer-lyricist Norma Winstone, on Sunnyside Records; it will also mark the debut of Hersch's first full-evening original suite, a Walt Whitman tribute featuring Winstone and Kurt Elling on vocals and a heavyweight eight-piece band. And, as Hersch declares with unconcealed glee, he'll lead a quintet at the Jazz Standard in New York, with the front line of trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and saxophonist Mark Turner.
But solo piano will, most likely, remain a primary means of expression. And this spells a rare treat for Philly -- which has literally never seen Hersch perform as a headlining artist. What to expect? A sort of transcendence, applied to both standard and original tunes. Hersch is matter-of-fact, and almost devoid of hubris, when he claims: "Give me a good piano, nice sound, some material that I love -- good things can happen."
Fred Hersch will play Fri., June 21, 5 p.m., at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th St. and Ben Franklin Parkway, 215-763-8100, www.philamuseum.org.
