ACROSS ... IN GRIEF AND DETAIL

COLORS OF JAZZ - FOR TROPICAL

Track Listing
1. How Do You Keep the Music Playing?
2. Eleanor Rigby
3. Just the Way You Are
4. Through the Fire
5. What's New?
6. That's What Friends Are For
7. You've Got a Friend
8. With Every Breath I Take
9. Just the Two of Us
10. You Are So Beautiful
11. Saving All My Love for You

Personnel: John Basile, Wayne Krantz (guitar); Dick Oatts (flute, saxophone); Randy Brecker (trumpet, flugelhorn); Fred Hersch (piano, synthesizer); David Finck (electric bass); Dave Ratajczak (drums); Jim Saporito (percussion).

Liner Note Author: Mort Goode.

Recording information: Skyline Studios, New York, NY.

Arrangers: Fred Hersch; Brad Dechter; Byron Olson.

Classical Music

Classical Music

HERSCH Character Studies. 1 Variations on a Bach Chorale. 2 Lyric Pieces for Trio. 3 Tango Bittersweet. 4 Saloon Songs. 5 • Natasha Paremski (pn); 1 Blair McMillen (pn); 2,5 Dorothy Lawson (vc); 4 Fred Hersch (pn); 4 Grammercy Tr 3 • NAXOS 8.559366 (61:09)


The concept of crossover music is certainly appealing. After all, music should be, to paraphrase Duke Ellington, either good or bad, and not about categories. Doesn’t often work that way, though. Paul McCartney, arguably one of the most important figures in rock history, embarrasses himself when he attempts to write symphonic music. The prog rock world is littered with other cases of pretentious drivel from musicians who, when they stick to their roots, are capable of powerful, sincere artistry. There are exceptions, most famously, Gershwin, but also the trail blazing saxophonist Ornette Coleman, whose orchestral outing, Skies of America , is a minor masterpiece.


Add Fred Hersch, a widely respected jazz pianist who still spends a good deal of his professional life playing gigs on the club circuit, to the short list of successful crossover artists. He calls this material, created between 2001 and 2006, concert music, simply meaning that it is written out and not improvised. Although a rhythmic pattern here and there alludes to his jazz background, this is basically neo-Romantic material. There are two big pieces. Lyric Pieces for Trio is a lovely, rather Gallic feeling work for piano, cello, and violin, in which the instrumental lines are rendered with unusual independence, resulting in a very open texture. The other large piece, and for me, the standout composition on the program, is the 24 Variations on a Bach Chorale . The theme is the haunting recurring motif from Saint Matthew Passion that Bach adapted from an original theme by Hans Leo Hassler. This is a superbly written and engrossing variation set, in the manner of Bach and Beethoven, although I am certain that Hersch would forgive me for suggesting that he is not quite in those ranks. Nevertheless, the thoughtfulness and scope of drama here is impressive. There is never any sense that Hersch is merely filling out; all of the music counts for something. It is astonishing to read that he wrote this music in five days. This is a work that should get a wider audience, and the attention of more pianists. McMillen gets the notes across, but there are many moments where it seems that a higher degree of panache is called for, in terms of tonal color and dexterity.


The shorter pieces are of a kind, music of grace and beauty. The Saloon Songs reveal a sure sense and deep affection for an American vernacular sound. Tango Bittersweet , for cello and piano, is a written-out version of music that Hersch played as an improvisation (with cellist Erik Friedlander) for many years. It has a sweetly lilting flavor that is irresistable. The Character Studies , inspired by important figures in Hersch’s career, are similarly appealing. Despite my comments on McMillen’s playing, the performances and recorded sound are fine, although this is music of sufficient merit to attract additional musicians. In all, a delightful release.


FANFARE: Peter Burwasser

Classical Music

Completed in 2008, Michael Hersch's 2-hour work for horn and cello, Last Autumn, has been described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as a "portrait of something too huge and undefinable, glorious and terrible, to be seen in anything more than glimpses." A work "whose riches defy the harmonic limitations of the instruments. ... Together, they created wild portraits of alienated togetherness."

Performed here by hornist Jamie Hersch and cellist Daniel Gaisford, for whom the piece was written, Last Autumn is the second in a series of evening-length works written by the composer over the past decade.

“Love Grows Deep” reunites vibraphonist Dick Sisto and pianist Fred Hersch in a luminous duo setting, drawing from their long musical friendship and the acclaimed 2001 concert at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. Sisto — a deeply melodic player shaped by Chicago’s golden age jazz scene and decades of artistic life in Louisville — finds an ideal partner in Hersch, whose lyricism and harmonic imagination have made him one of modern jazz’s most celebrated pianists. This hybrid release combines newly selected performances from the original Duo Live album with additional, previously unreleased material from the same concert. Originals by both artists sit alongside works by Wayne Shorter, Thelonious Monk, and Benny Carter, revealing a rapport marked by clarity, warmth, and effortless interplay. A quarter century after its recording, “Love Grows Deep” stands as a testament to two master musicians whose shared sensibility turns every piece into an intimate conversation.

SILENT LISTENING

Fred Hersch - "Silent, Listening" [LP] / Silent, Listening is a major addition to ECM's distinguished line of solo piano recordings, featuring one of the outstanding improvising pianists and jazz masters of our time: Fred Hersch. The album features seven original creations and a handful of well-chosen standards, all played with the focus, sensitivity and gracefulness for which Hersch is renowned. Developed with producer Manfred Eicher in the responsive acoustics of the Lugano studio, the album was recorded in May 2023.

Digitally remastered edition of this 1990 album from the jazz pianist. "This is the first album I've done with a working band," Fred begins. "There was the album, Horizons, with Marc Johnson and Joey Baron. But though we had played together with Toots Thielemans and in other rhythm section contexts, we never played as a trio. Michael Formanek and Jeff Hirshfield are contemporaries, which is a very important thing to me because we grew up listening to the same music. We've been in New York about the same amount of time. We've done all the sideman gigs, some of them together: Michael has played with people like Freddie Hubbard, Eddie Henderson, Tony Williams, Herbie Mann. Attila Zoller and Dave Liebman. Jeff also has played with a lot of people including Jim Hall, Randy Brecker and Eliane Elias, Penny Wallace and numerous big bands. We've been jazz mercenaries', as Jeff calls it. But, now this trio project is something that we're doing for us!"

2017 release. Beautiful Love is a poignant duo date in which the exceptional talents of singer Jay Clayton and pianist Fred Hersch virtually redefine the genre. In a program of standards drawn from what Alec Wilder has simply and eloquently called "The American Popular Song," the twosome's poignant interplay is emotionally compelling and musically sublime.

SARABANDE

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