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Fred Hersch Trio at KCH

BY LARS BJORN

The Fred Hersch Trio visited Ann Arbor's Kerrytown Concert House on a CD release tour for their new release Live at the Village Vanguard (Palmetto Records) on May 8. Drew Gress (bass) and Nasheet Waits (drums) were the other members of this very accomplished trio. The program included several standards as well as Hersch's own compositions, including several from the new CD.

The evening started and finished with tunes by Monk. "Work" kicked things off and I was immediately struck by the sound of the trio. The three musicians listened attentively to each other and worked on producing a carefully calibrated total sound. The last song of the regular program was "Evidence," to which Hersch gave an extended intro with some beautiful colorings. The ensemble parts on this piece were rhythmically quite free and the most exhilarating of the evening. Hersch's own "Stuttering," built on one major scale, also included some intricate rhythmic patterns from the trio. To top off this witty piece, Waits treated us to a carefully constructed drum solo. Waits worked beautifully with Hersch throughout the evening. Both are nimble players with a great sense of dynamics. Gress is a wonderful accompanist and his melodic talents were most evident on a couple of Wayne Shorter pieces, "Miayako"/"Black Nile." Hersch has a fondness for ballads and on pieces like "Black Dog Pays a Visit," "Some Other Time," and "At the Close of the Day" his piano touch was exquisite. The latter is part of the pianist's Walt Whitman tribute, "Leaves of Grass," which recently had its world premiere in Kalamazoo.

As an encore, Hersch gave us a solo version of Strayhorn's "Lotus Blossom" — a masterful miniature to end a great evening of music.

photographs by Lars Bjorn

 

 

I N - T H I S - I S S U E :
1. MICHIGAN JAZZ FEST---2. FRED HERSCH
3. RECENT RECORDINGS
4. TEDDY EDWARDS---5.CARL ALEXIUS
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