“Best Jazz Instrumental Album” and “Best Improvised Jazz
Solo”
Internationally acclaimed jazz pianist and composer Fred
Hersch has received two 2017 Grammy nominations for the Fred Hersch Trio’s
recent Palmetto Records CD Sunday Night at the Vanguard. Hersch has been
nominated in the categories of Best Jazz Instrumental Album and Best Improvised
Jazz Solo (Monk’s “We See”, Fred Hersch, soloist). The Grammy Awards ceremony
will take place in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 12, 2017.
Hersch has now earned a total of ten Grammy nominations
since 1993 in the categories of Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Best
Instrumental Composition and Best Improvised Jazz Solo.
A select member of jazz’s piano pantheon, Fred Hersch is a
pervasively influential creative force who has shaped the music’s course over
more than three decades as an improviser, composer, educator, bandleader,
collaborator and recording artist. A ten-time Grammy Award nominee, he
continues to earn jazz’s most prestigious awards, including recent distinctions
as a 2016 Doris Duke Artist and 2016 Jazz Pianist of the Year from the Jazz
Journalists Association.
Hersch has long defined jazz’s creative edge in a wide
variety of settings, from his breathtaking solo recitals and exploratory duos
to his extraordinary trios and innovative chamber settings. With some three
dozen albums to his credit as a leader or co-leader, he consistently wins an
international array of awards and lavish critical praise for his albums. The
2015 Palmetto album Fred Hersch SOLO won a Coup de Coeur from L’Academie
Charles Cros – his third such award – as well as the French Grand Prix de
L’Académie de Jazz.
The feature documentary The Ballad of Fred Hersch premiered
at the prestigious Full Frame Film Festival in March 2016 to a sold-out house
and rave reviews. His memoir, Good Things Happen Slowly, will be published in
2017 by Crown Books/Random House.
Sunday Night at the Vanguard featuring Hersch with his trio
of bassist John Hébert and drummer Eric McPherson, has earned wide critical
acclaim.
“The resulting
album…confirms that he’s still one of the most insightfully lyrical searchers
in his field. It also underscores how his bond with the bassist John Hebert and
the drummer Eric McPherson, while never less than strong, reaches a rarefied
plane in this particular room.” – Nate Chinen, New York Times
“His sparkling tone, harmonic inventiveness, dynamic
control, and mastery of rubato are striking from the opening seconds of the
first track.” – Fred Kaplan, Stereophile
“It is, perhaps, his trio work that will be his legacy to
the jazz pantheon. He is Hersch. A combination of fearless determination and
sensitive interpretation. *****” – Mark Corroto, All About Jazz
“…’Sunday Night At The Vanguard’ takes the trio’s propensity
for dramatic lyricism, harmonic exploration and rhythmic experimentation to new
levels of poise and audacity.” – Ed Enright, DownBeat Magazine (Editor’s Pick)
“Like the Modern Jazz Quartet, the Fred Hersch Trio is an
entity where the indiidual parts coalesce into a greater whole. Sunday Night at
the Vanguard is an instant classic, and the best piano trio album I have heard
in years.” – Thomas Cunniffe, Jazz History Online
“This is as good as it gets.” ***** – Cormac Larkin, The
Irish Times
“You’ll hear a Monk tune that sounds nothing like Monk, and
you’ll hear originals that sound like standards and standards that sound like
originals.” – Rick Anderson, CD Hotlist (Rick’s Pick)
“Fred Hersch chose to give listeners what he thought was the
‘lightning in a bottle’ of a night when the band was ‘in the zone’ - this
glorious album should make you want to see the band live. And, do go see and
hear them, as the Fred Hersch Trio is among the best ensembles of any size
playing in this day and age.” – Richard Kamins, Step Tempest
“Hersch is one of the major living jazz pianists but he has
never quite become a star. Perhaps
because he is so technically refined, so comprehensive in his coverage of the
maistream piano universe, he evades categorization. In a perfect world where
you were king, you would sit Fred Hersch down and make him play every song you
ever loved.” – Thomas Conrad, New York City Jazz Record
“.... their empathetic interplay makes them the natural
heirs to the Evans/LaFaro/Motian unit the revoloutionized the jazz-piano trio
on the Village Vanguard stage.” – Matt R Lohr, Jazz Times
“A pianist of uncommen senitivity combined with sn infinite
capacity to swing, Hersch benfits greatly from a remkable intective, elastic
rhythm section in bassist John Hébert and drummer Eric McPherson.” – Bill
Milkowski, Absolulte Sound
“Pianist Fred Hersch
is a painter of musical portraits that are infused with tonal color and
harmonic depth, all presented within a frame of originality, sophistication,
and virtuosity. His latest trio
recording, Sunday Night At The Vanguard continues to demonstrate his commitment
to these traits.” – Pierre Giroux,
Audiophile Audition
“Few pianists have possessed a more comprehensive,
magisterial technique or musical integrity.... Fred Hersch is both the grandest
and most lyric of virtuosos.” – Raul Da Gama, Jazz DaGama
“It’s a good thing then that Hersch’s disc is filled with so
much lyricism, creative sparkle and personality. We’ll leave it to a later date
to figure out where Sunday Night at the Vanguard fits in the jazz pantheon, but
for now, let’s call it a richly satisfying listen that represents this latest
edition of Hersch’s trio, which has already recorded once at the Vanguard, in
full bloom, striving and succeeding in many musical directions.” – Peter Hum,
The Ottawa Citizen
“After all their years together, take it for granted that
pianist Hersch, bassist John Hébert and drummer Eric McPherson listen intently
to one another and mesh with elegance on every level. However, taking for
granted anything about the Hersch trio can only open you up to surprises. Close
listening to this album brings great rewards.” –Doug Ramsey, Rifftides
Hersch has earned similar distinction with his writing,
garnering a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition. He’s collaborated with
an astonishing range of artists throughout the worlds of jazz (Joe Henderson,
Charlie Haden, Art Farmer, Stan Getz, Bill Frisell); classical (Renée Fleming,
Dawn Upshaw, Christopher O'Riley); and Broadway (Audra McDonald). Long admired
for his sympathetic work with singers, Hersch has joined with such notable jazz
vocalists as Nancy King, Janis Siegel, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Norma Winstone
and Kurt Elling.
