Fred Hersch

Hersch was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Jewish parents. He began playing the piano at age four, under the tutelage of Jeanne Kirstein. He began composing music at eight, and 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 under Jaki Byard, attracting attention from the press ("a fine showcase for Fred Hersch") in a college recital.^[1] On graduation, he became a jazz piano instructor at the college.^[2]

In his 2017 autobiography, Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In and Out of Jazz, Hersch talks about seeing Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Arkestra at Gilly's, a now-closed jazz club in Dayton, Ohio. He recalls being in the audience when bandleader Art Pepper kicked the pianist hired for the occasion off the stand and asked if there was anyone in the audience who could sit in—an offer Hersch took up, which essentially launched his career.^[3]

In 1977, Hersch moved to New York. One of his earliest professional engagements was with Art Farmer in Los Angeles in 1978. Jazz critic Leonard Feather wrote that Hirsch "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, including two of Hirsch's own compositions; 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] The next year, his trio played for singer Chris Connor, who was making a comeback after completing a recovery program for alcoholism.^[8] Hirsch also played at the Kool Jazz Festival that year,^[9] and with Joe Henderson in the New Jazz at the Public series.^[10]

In 1983, Hersch played a duo session with bassist Ratzo 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] His first solo piano recording came in 1993: Fred Hersch at Maybeck.^[24]

In 2006, Palmetto Records released the solo CD Fred Hersch in Amsterdam: Live at the Bimhuis,^[25] and released his eighth solo disc, Fred Hersch Plays Jobim, in 2009.^[26]

In 2024, Hersch played with Drew Gress and Joey Baron at the Teatro Mario Del Monaco, in Treviso, in North East of Italy. The concert was part of the festival Treviso Suona Jazz Festival.^[27]

Hersch's own compositions feature prominently in 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.

Many of Hersch's compositions have been transcribed by music publisher Edition Peters, including Valentine, Three Character Studies, Saloon Songs, and 24 Variations on a Bach Chorale.^[28]

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; it was presented in March 2005 at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall as part of a six-city U.S. tour.^[29]

Hersch has worked with instrumentalists and vocalists in the worlds of jazz (Joe Henderson, Charlie Haden, Art Farmer, Stan Getz and Bill Frisell), classical music (Renée Fleming,^[30] Dawn Upshaw, Joshua Bell,^[31] Christopher O'Riley, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg),^[32] and Broadway (Audra McDonald). He 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.

• Académie Charles Cros
• Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Composition, 2003
• Coup de coeur for Alone at the Vanguard, 2011
• Grand Prix du Disque for Alive at the Vanguard, 2012
• Pianist of the Year, Jazz Journalists Association, 2011,^[33] 2016,^[34] 2018^[35]
• Pianist of the Year, DownBeat magazine Critics' Poll, 2015
• Artiste étranger de l'année, Jazz magazine in France, 2015
• Grand Prix du Disque de l'Académie du Jazz, Solo, 2015^[36]
• Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts, Northern Kentucky University, 2015
• Doris Duke Performing Artist Award 2016
• Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Grinnell College, 2016
• Prix Honorem in Jazz and Coup de cœur jazz, 2017^[37]
• Book of the Year about Jazz, Good Things Happen Slowly, Jazz Journalists Association, 2018^[35]
• Hersch has been awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship, grants from Chamber Music America, the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and seven composition residencies at the MacDowell Colony.

DownBeat magazine described Hersch as "one of the small handful of brilliant musicians of his generation."^[42] 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."^[42]

Hersch's influence has been widely felt on a new generation of jazz pianists, from former Hersch students including Brad Mehldau, Ethan Iverson, Sullivan Fortner, Aaron Diehl and Dan Tepfer to his contemporary Jason Moran, who said: "Fred at the piano is like LeBron James on the basketball court. He's perfection."^[43]

Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In and Out of Jazz, published in 2017 ^[49]

• List of jazz pianists