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Fred Hersch

 
Artist: Fred Hersch
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Fred Hersch

Similar Artists:

Roland Hanna, John Lewis, George Cables, Mingus Big Band, Tommy Flanagan, Hugh Lawson, Mulgrew Miller, Elmo Hope

Influenced By:

Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Keith Jarrett

Performed Songs By:

Michael Moore, Thelonious Monk, Richard Rodgers, Jane Ira Bloom, Oscar Hammerstein II, Christian Gavillet, Billy Strayhorn

Worked With:

Janis Siegel, Harvie Swartz, A.T. Michael MacDonald, Michael Moore, Art Farmer, Joe Henderson, Drew Gress, Gerry Hemingway, Lee Konitz, Toots Thielemans, Jane Ira Bloom, Tom Rainey

Formal Connection With:

Randy Porter
  • Born: October 21, 1955, Cincinnati, OH
  • Active: '80s, '90s, 2000s
  • Genres: Jazz
  • Instrument: Piano
  • Representative Albums: "Leaves of Grass", "Dancing in the Dark", "Fred Hersch Trio Plays...
  • Representative Songs: "Heartsong", "Tango Bittersweet", "Sarabande

Biography

A superior soloist, accompanist, and interpreter of ballads, Fred Hersch started playing piano when he was four. He moved to New York in 1977 and worked as a sideman with many players including Stan Getz, Joe Henderson, Toots Thielemans, Art Farmer, Jane Ira Bloom, Eddie Daniels, and Janis Siegel, in addition to leading his own groups. During 1980-1986, he taught at the New England Conservatory and became part of the faculty at the New School. In addition, Hersch has recorded extensively as a leader, including for Sunnyside, Concord, Angel/EMI, Red, and Chesky, issuing Songs We Know in 1998. Songs Without Words followed three years later. Since that time, Hersch has remained quite active, releasing a bevy of albums including the three-disc Songs Without Words in 2001, the ambitious Walt Whitman-inspired project Leaves of Grass in 2005, and Night & the Music in 2007. In 2009, Live at Jazz Standard appeared on Sunnyside, billed under the Fred Hersch Pocket Orchestra, as did the solo bossa nova-themed effort Fred Hersch Plays Jobim. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
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Wikipedia: Fred Hersch
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Fred Hersch (born October 21, 1955 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is a contemporary American jazz pianist who has become a consistent and highly demanded performer on the international jazz scene.

Hersch began playing piano at a very young age, growing up in the North Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. He also had an early interest in mandolin. By age 12, Fred had written his first symphony. He studied at Grinnell College in the mid 1970s and began playing in jazz clubs in Cincinnati. He later graduated from New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. His teachers included Sophia Rosoff. He moved to New York City in the late 1970s where he soon found a place playing with artists including Stan Getz, Joe Henderson, Lee Konitz, Art Farmer, and Charlie Haden.

Hersch soon began recording his own records and composing music. Like a number of jazz pianists who have come of age over the past 20 years, he is strongly influenced by the work of Bill Evans, though Hersch has also been at pains to distance himself from Evans' influence. Although Hersch has played in a number of different instrumental combinations, he also plays as a solo performer, and many of his albums--such as Live at the Bimhuis (2005)--are solo recitals. In 2006 he was invited by club owner Lorraine Gordon to perform the first-ever solo piano booking at the legendary Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City.

Hersch's also works as a vocal accompanist and has recently recorded duo work with Jay Clayton, Nancy King, and Karin Oberlin.

In 1986 he was diagnosed with HIV.[1] Since then, Hersch has campaigned and performed for several AIDS-related charities and causes. Along with Gary Burton and Andy Bey, Hersch is one of the few openly gay jazz musicians.[1]

He is also a music educator, having taught at the New School University, Manhattan School of Music, Western Michigan University, and his alma mater, the New England Conservatory.

Contents

Discography

  • Horizons (1984)
  • Sarabande (1986)
  • E.T.C. (1988)
  • Heartsongs (1989)
  • The French Collection (1989)
  • Short Stories (1989) with Janis Siegel
  • Evanessence: A Tribute to Bill Evans (1990)
  • Forward Motion (1991)
  • Red Square Blue: Jazz Impressions of Russian Composers (1992)
  • Dancing in the Dark (1992)
  • Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Vol. 31 (1993)
  • The Fred Hersch Trio Plays (1994)
  • I Never Told You: Fred Hersch Plays Johnny Mandel (1994)
  • Point in Time (1995)
  • Plays Billy Strayhorn (1995)
  • Beautiful Love (1995) with Jay Clayton
  • Slow Hot Wind (1995) with Janis Siegel
  • Passion Flower (1996)
  • Plays Rodgers & Hammerstein (1996)
  • Thelonious (1997)
  • The Duo Album (1997)
  • Thirteen Ways (1997)
  • Songs We Know (1998) with Bill Frisell
  • Let Yourself Go: Live at Jordan Hall (1999)
  • Focus (2000) with Michael Moore and Gerry Hemingway
  • Songs without Words (2002)
  • Live at the Village Vanguard (2003)
  • Songs and Lullabies (2003) with Norma Winstone and Gary Burton
  • Fred Hersch Trio + 2 (2004) with Ralph Alessi and Tony Malaby
  • Leaves of Grass (2005)
  • Live at the Bimhuis (2005)
  • Fred Hersch Trio Night and the Music (2007)
  • Concert Music 2001-2006 (2007)
  • Fred Hersch Pocket Orchestra: Live at Jazz Standard (2009)

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Fries, Kenny (April 1, 2003), "Songs of Whitman" ([dead link] – Scholar search), The Advocate, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_2003_April_1/ai_100111743, retrieved 2007-11-21 

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 
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Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
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