TUNES: YOU AND THE NIGHT AND THE MUSIC/ FLOATING/ WEST VIRGINIA ROSE/ HOME FRIES/ FAR AWAY/ ARCATA/ A SPEECH TO THE SEA/ AUTUMN HAZE/ IF EVER I WOULD LEAVE YOU/ LET’S COOL ONE; 58:36.

PERSONNEL: Fred Hersch (p), John Hébert (b), Eric McPherson (d); no dates specified, Yonkers, NY.

Don’t look now, but we’re living in a golden age of piano trios. Brad Mehldau, Matthew Shipp, Vijay Iyer, and Jason Moran are all active in that ever-popular format, and vets like George Cables, Keith Jarrett and Harold Mabern are thankfully still with us. Sorry if I’ve omitted one of your favorites, but all jazz piano fans can agree that the Fred Hersch Trio is a true treasure. Hersch has been recording his trios live for a while, often at the Village Vanguard. The group’s latest release is a studio album, Floating, but it’s structured very much like a club set. They start off with a standard to get things moving along, a version of “You and the Night and the Music that’s simply gorgeous. The intricate arrangement highlights three separate lines, from Hersch’s two hands and bassist John Hébert, with emphatic yet supportive drumming by Eric McPherson. The superb interplay and deep unity of feeling that the trio exhibits on a tune that the audience is likely to know sets up the listener for similarly appealing performances of Hersch’s original compositions. The title track which follows the opener offers a beautifully poised melody, delicately caressed by the musicians. As Hersch notes, “‘Floating’ is the magic sound-place where this trio lives a lot of the time...” The small amount of melodic content combines with an atmosphere of patient trust to produce a rather elegant performance. Composers take their inspirations from a cosmos of choices. Hersch relies mostly on music inspired and dedicated to specific individuals. So we have the plain prettiness of “West Virginia Rose,” for his mother and grandmother, the second line groove of “Home Fries,” dedicated to bassist Hébert, a New Orleans native, the upbeat and rather tricky “Arcata,” dedicated to bassist Esperanza Spalding, and the subdued ballad “Autumn Haze,” dedicated to fellow pianist Kevin Hays. The elegiac

“Far Away” is a lovely and tender tribute to Shimrit Shoshan, an Israeli pianist who died young. The other Hersch original is the calmly investigative “A Speech to the Sea,” inspired by the work of Finnish artist Maaria Wirkkala. It features a lovely bass solo by Hébert. The album’s other standard, “If Ever I Should Leave You,” presents Hersch in some masterful and emotionally fraught playing. Our journey concludes, as do many of the trio’s club dates, with a playful rendition of a Thelonious Monk composition, as they dig deeply into “Let’s Cool One” to wind up a seriously impressive and varied hour. Don’t miss it.

Stuart Kremsky
CD review from Volume 41, No. 2, 2015 

www.cadencemagazine.com

CD REVIEW: NEW RELEASE

ARTIST: FRED HERSCH TRIO

TITLE: FLOATING

LABEL: PALMETTO PM2171