Fred Hersch

Fred Hersch
Fred Hersch at Reykjavik Jazz Festival 2017
Background information
Born	(1955-10-21) October 21, 1955 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, educator
Instruments	Piano
Years active	1977–present
Labels	Sunnyside, Chesky, Nonesuch, Palmetto
Website	www.fredhersch.com

Fred Hersch (born October 21, 1955) is an American jazz pianist and educator. He has performed solo and led his own groups, including the Pocket Orchestra consisting of piano, trumpet, voice, and percussion. He was the first person to play weeklong engagements as a solo pianist at the Village Vanguard in New York City. He has recorded more than 70 of his jazz compositions. Hersch has been nominated for several Grammy Awards, and, as of December 2014, had been on the Jazz Studies faculty of the New England Conservatory since 1980 (with breaks).^[1]

Early life

Hersch was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He began playing the piano at the age of four (under the tutelage of Jeanne Kirstein) and started composing music by eight. He won national piano competitions starting at the age of ten.

Hersch first became interested in jazz while at Grinnell College in Iowa. He dropped out of school and started playing jazz in Cincinnati. He continued his studies at the New England Conservatory, attracting attention from the press – "a fine showcase for Fred Hersch" – in a college recital.^[2] On graduation, he became a jazz piano instructor at the college.^[3]

Career

One of Fred Hersch's earliest professional engagements was with Art Farmer in Los Angeles in 1978. Jazz critic Leonard Feather wrote that he "showed his ability as an accompanist and soloist at the out-of-tune piano".^[4] He played with Farmer again in 1981.^[5] In 1982, the album A Work of Art (Art Farmer Quartet, Concord Jazz CJ-179), was released, with Hersch on piano. It included two original compositions by Hersch. Leonard Feather gave it 3½ stars.^[6]

In 1980, the Fred Hersch Trio played at B. Dalton Bookseller, one of many fringe events that were an offshoot of the Newport Jazz Festival.^[7]

In 1981, he and his trio played for singer Chris Connor, who was making a comeback after completing a recovery program for alcoholism.^[8]

He played at the Kool Jazz Festival in 1981,^[9] and with Joe Henderson in the New Jazz at the Public series in the same year.^[10]

In 1983, Hersch played a duo session with bassist Ratso Harris at the Knickerbocker Saloon, New York. The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Hersch is a romantic. He is openly involved in what he is playing and projects this involvement with body English and facial expressions that subtly underline the sense of his music. His lines often become gently billowing waves of sound, and he rises and falls, tenses and relaxes along with them."^[11]

In 1983–84, Hersch played many sessions with Jane Ira Bloom in several venues, and with whom he recorded the album, Mighty Lights.^[12][13][14]

In 1985, he played with the Jamie Baum Quartet.^[15]

In 1986, he played with Toots Thielemans at the Great Woods jazz festival.^[16] He played with him in several sessions the following year,^[17][18] and again in 1987, receiving special attention for his solos.^[19] In 1986, he taught at Berklee College of Music.^[20]

He was the pianist for the Eddie Daniels quartet in 1987 and appeared on his album, To Bird with Love.^[21]

In 1988, Hersch played in Somerville, Massachusetts with his quintet at the Willow Jazz Club. The Boston Globe described him as "an elegant, highly melodic player."^[22]

In 1989, Hersch played with Janis Siegel of The Manhattan Transfer and they recorded together in a studio set up in his home.^[23]

In 2006, Palmetto Records released the solo CD Fred Hersch in Amsterdam: Live at the Bimhuis,^[24] and released his eighth solo disc, Fred Hersch Plays Jobim, in 2009.^[25]

Composing

Hersch's career as a performer has been enhanced by his composing activities, which are an important part of nearly all of his concerts and recordings. He has received commissions from the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, the Doris Duke Foundation, the Miller Theatre at Columbia University, the Gramercy Trio and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. A disc of his through-composed works, Fred Hersch: Concert Music 2001-2006, was released by Naxos Records.

A number of Hersch's compositions have been transcribed by music publisher Edition Peters. These include "Valentine", Three Character Studies, Saloon Songs, and 24 Variations on a Bach Chorale.^[26]

Hersch was awarded a 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for composition. In the same year, he created Leaves of Grass (Palmetto Records), a large-scale setting of Walt Whitman's poetry for two voices (Kurt Elling and Kate McGarry) and an instrumental octet; the work was presented in March 2005 at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall as part of a six-city U.S. tour.^[27]

Accompanist

Hersch has collaborated with a variety of instrumentalists and vocalists in the worlds of jazz (Joe Henderson, Charlie Haden, Art Farmer, Stan Getz and Bill Frisell); classical (Renée Fleming,^[28]Dawn Upshaw, Joshua Bell,^[29] Christopher O'Riley, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg);^[30] and Broadway (Audra McDonald). Hersch has accompanied jazz vocalists such as Nancy King, Norma Winstone and Kurt Elling.

Hersch has taught at The New School and Manhattan School of Music, and conducted a Professional Training Workshop for Young Musicians at The Weill Institute at Carnegie Hall in 2008.

Nominations

Since 2011 he was recognized by The Recording Academy nominating him with multiple Grammy Awards:

• 2011: Best Jazz Instrumental Album for Alone at the Vanguard, and Best Improvised Jazz Solo for "Work"
• 2013: Best Improvised Jazz Solo for "Song Without Words #4: Duet" (with Julian Lage)
• 2014: Best Jazz Instrumental Album for Floating (as the Fred Hersch Trio), and Best Improvised Jazz Solo for "You and the Night and the Music"
• 2016: Best Jazz Instrumental Album for Sunday Night at the Vanguard, and Best Improvised Jazz Solo for "We See"
• 2017: Best Jazz Instrumental Album for Open Book, and Best Improvised Jazz Solo for "Whisper Not"

In 2011 Hersch was voted Jazz Pianist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. His two-CD trio album, Alive at the Vanguard, was awarded the 2012 Grand Prix du Disque by the Académie Charles Cros in France and was named one of the Best CDs of 2012 by DownBeat.

Hersch has been awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship, grants from Chamber Music America, the National Endowment for the Arts and Meet the Composer, and seven composition residencies at the MacDowell Colony. Hersch has been a guest on a variety of radio and television programs.

Awards

Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Composition 2003

Coup de coeur de l'Academie Charles Cross 2011 (Alone)

Grand Prix du Disque de l'Academie Charles Cross 2012 (Alive at the Vanguard)

Jazz Magazine (France) “Artiste Étranger de L’année” 2015

DownBeat Critics’ Poll “Pianist of the Year” 2015

JazzTimes Critics’ Poll “Piano” 2015

Jazz Logical “CD Internacional” 2015 (Solo)

Grand Prix du Disque de l’Académie du Jazz 2015 (Solo)

Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts, Northern Kentucky University, 2015

Doris Duke Artist Award 2016

Jazz Journalists Association “Pianist of the Year” 2016

Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Grinnell College, 2016

Prix Honorem in Jazz from L’Acádemie Charles Cros, 2017

Jazz Journalists Association “Book of the Year about Jazz” 2018

Jazz Journalists Association “Pianist of the Year” 2018

Critical response

Downbeat magazine described Hersch as "one of the small handful of brilliant musicians of his generation."^[31] The New York Times described him as "singular among the trailblazers of their art, a largely unsung innovator of this borderless, individualistic jazz – a jazz for the 21st century."^[32]

Influence

Hersch's influence has been widely felt on a new generation of jazz pianists, from former Hersch students including Brad Mehldau and Ethan Iverson of the Bad Plus, to his contemporary Jason Moran, who said: "Fred at the piano is like LeBron James on the basketball court. He's perfection."

Gallery

• 
  Fred Hersch during an interview at Reykjavik Jazz Festival
• 
  Fred Hersch Trio,
  John Hebert (b),
  Eric McPherson (d)

Personal Life

Discography

See also

• List of jazz pianists

References

External links

• Official Website
• "Let Yourself Go - The Lives of Fred Hersch", documentary about Fred Hersch on DVD
• "In Conversation with Fred Hersch" (Jazz.com)
• "'Live' With The Fred Hersch Pocket Orchestra By Kevin Whitehead - NPR Fresh Air"
• Video of Fred Hersch, NEC
• DTM interview