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The Fred Hersch Trio: 10 Years / 6 Discs

By Mark Corroto
October 5, 2019
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The Fred Hersch Trio: 10 Years / 6 Discs

You might be surprised by pianist

Fred Hersch

piano
b.1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Fred Hersch's response to a near-death coma in 2008. Quoting from his memoir Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In And Out Of Jazz (Crown Archetype Press, 2017), "a confrontation with death brings home the preciousness of life... It was the newest, brightest, shining, most surprising, most uplifting feeling I had ever had." Listeners need not endure a two-month persistent vegetative state to induce a similar response. They need only listen to Hersch's output post-coma to get that brightest, shining, most surprising, and most uplifting feeling.

Post-2009 you could hear him in a solo setting on the Palmetto Records releases, Alone At The Vanguard (2011), Solo (2015) and Open Book (2017) or in duo with

Ralph Alessi

trumpet
b.1963

" data-original-title="" title="">Ralph Alessi,

Julian Lage

guitar, electric

" data-original-title="" title="">Julian Lage, or

Anat Cohen

clarinet
b.1975

" data-original-title="" title="">Anat Cohen. But to get the most uplifting bang for your buck, his trio recordings have always held the most value. Pre-2009, Hersch's trios included the stellar bassists,

Marc Johnson

bass
b.1953

" data-original-title="" title="">Marc Johnson or

Drew Gress

bass
b.1959

" data-original-title="" title="">Drew Gress, also some of today's finest drummers, including

Joey Baron

drums
b.1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Joey Baron,

Nasheet Waits

drums
b.1971

" data-original-title="" title="">Nasheet Waits, and

Tom Rainey

drums
b.1957

" data-original-title="" title="">Tom Rainey. Post-2009, the pianist assembled a new trio, and it contains his best work. But it also may contain bassist

John Hébert

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">John H��bert's and drummer

Eric McPherson

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Eric McPherson's best work.

A great jazz trio is not just a vehicle for one musician. It can be, and there are jazz trios that, to tell the truth, are simply a soloist with a side salad. The finest jazz trios create something greater than just their parts. Think about the trios,

Hank Jones

piano
1918 - 2010

" data-original-title="" title="">Hank Jones,

Ron Carter

bass
b.1937

" data-original-title="" title="">Ron Carter and

Tony Williams

drums
1945 - 1997

" data-original-title="" title="">Tony Williams, or

Bill Evans

piano
1929 - 1980

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Evans,

Scott LaFaro

bass
1936 - 1961

" data-original-title="" title="">Scott LaFaro and

Paul Motian

drums
1931 - 2011

" data-original-title="" title="">Paul Motian or

Oscar Peterson

piano
1925 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Oscar Peterson,

Ray Brown

bass, acoustic
1926 - 2002

" data-original-title="" title="">Ray Brown and

Ed Thigpen

drums
1930 - 2010

" data-original-title="" title="">Ed Thigpen. Insert your favorite trios here. While there might have been a headliner on the marquee, the excitement happened because of the chemistry between the players. This is definitely true for the latest version of The Fred Hersch Trio. Throughout these five (two studio and three live) recording dates documenting the trio's progression from formation in 2009, we experience a unified sound coming together. Not that their inaugural release Whirl (2010) isn't a 4? star album. It's that through a rigorous touring and performance schedule, the trio has developed a keen ESP. If you skip to the final recording, Live In Europe (2018), you'll notice that rapport. The trio opens with a sideways approach to

Thelonious Monk

piano
1917 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Thelonious Monk's "We See," played as if each musician is daring the others to make the next move. Monk, who might be Hersch's spirit animal, is the perfect matter for this kind of musical mischief and Hersch ends all his concerts and five out of six of these dates with his (now) trademark random-Monk generator. Elsewhere he harkens back to the vibrancy of the NY club scene of the 1970s and 80s when he was a sideman for

Joe Henderson

saxophone
1937 - 2001

" data-original-title="" title="">Joe Henderson,

Art Farmer

flugelhorn
1928 - 1999

" data-original-title="" title="">Art Farmer and

Billy Harper

saxophone
b.1943

" data-original-title="" title="">Billy Harper; jazz was at the fork in the road where old masters were abandoned for young lions. The trio plays music dedicated to Hersch's heroes,

Sonny Rollins

saxophone
b.1930

" data-original-title="" title="">Sonny Rollins "Softly As A Morning Sunrise," "Doxy," and the Hersch original "Newkcalypso,"

Ornette Coleman

saxophone, alto
1930 - 2015

" data-original-title="" title="">Ornette Coleman "Lonely Woman,"

Charlie Parker

saxophone, alto
1920 - 1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Charlie Parker "Segment" and

Jaki Byard

piano
1922 - 1999

" data-original-title="" title="">Jaki Byard's "Mrs. Parker Of K.C.,"

Wayne Shorter

saxophone
1933 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Wayne Shorter "Mikayo" and "Black Nile," and a devastatingly beautiful rendition of

Jimmy Rowles

piano
1918 - 1996

" data-original-title="" title="">Jimmy Rowles "The Peacocks." There are also three dozen originals; they are new standards to pass to the next generation. This edition allows for a deep dive into the development of a first class working group, a rare commodity these days.

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Track Listing

Whirl You're My Everything; Snow Is Falling...;Blue Midnight; Skipping; Mandevilla; When Your Lover Has Gone; Whirl; Sad Poet; Mrs. Parker Of K.C.; Still Here. Alive At The Vanguard CD1: Havana; Tristesse; Segment; Lonely Woman/Nardis; Dream of Monk; Rising, Falling; Softly As In a Morning Sunrise; Doxy. CD2: Opener; I Fall in Love Too Easily; Jackalope; The Wind/Moon and Sand; Sartorial; From This Moment On; The Song is You/Played Twice. Floating You & The Night & The Music; Floating; West Virginia Rose (For Florette & Roslyn; Home Fries (For John Hebert); Far Away (For Shimrit); Arcata (For Esperanza); A Speech to the Sea (For Maaria); Autumn Haze (For Kevin Hays); If Ever I Would Leave You; Let's Cool One. Sunday Night At The Vanguard A Cockeyed Optimist; Serpentine; The Optimum Thing; Calligram; Blackwing Palomino; For No One; Everybody��s Song But My Own; The Peacocks; We See; Solo Encore: Valentine. Live In Europe We See; Snape Maltings; Scuttlers; Skipping; Bristol Fog; Newklypso; The Big Easy; Miyako; Black Nile; Blue Monk.

Personnel

Fred Hersch

piano

Fred Hersch: piano; John H��bert: bass; Eric McPherson: drums.

Album information

Title: 10 Years / 6 Discs | Year Released: 2019 | Record Label: Palmetto Records

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