New CD from Fred Hersch

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On May 1, 2007, Palmetto Records will release The Fred Hersch Trio's first studio trio CD in more than 10 years, Night and the Music. "Fred is one of the great musical voices of our generation", said Matt Balitsaris, President of Palmetto Records. "I am pleased that he decided to go back to the trio for this record, and he reminds us of what we knew all along that he is foremost a bad-ass jazz pianist, and he's at the top of his game." Hersch says, "Playing trio is a favorite and has been a constant in my career. It is both great fun and a supreme challenge. Drew Gress is my perfect bassist experienced, sympathetic, and creative with a fantastic sound. Nasheet Waits is both masterful and constantly surprising."

Hersch's choice in tunes on the CD is similar to what he might play in any given night at the Village Vanguard. Consisting of originals, rearranged standards, and Thelonious Monk tunes, 7 of the 10 tracks on the release were first takes.

Hersch has created an immense and diverse body of solo, trio, small group, large ensemble and classical music over his 20-year career as a leader. His compositional efforts and performance collaborations speak to the gradual erasure of boundaries between jazz and classical music. "Hersch is a complete, self-sufficient, uniquely pure art form", says JazzTimes magazine.

This is Fred Hersch's fifth project for Palmetto Records in five years. His most recent release, In Amsterdam: Live at the Bimhuis, is an eclectic solo program of Hersch at his peak. Shortly after the release of the CD, he was invited to be the first pianist in the 70-year history of the Village Vanguard to do an entire week of solo performances. DownBeat magazine states: "Fred Hersch is among the most lyrical, thoughtful and subtle
improvisers on any instrument."

The Fred Hersch Trio will celebrate the release of Night and the Music with a week at The Village Vanguard, May 8-13.

Pianist and composer Fred Hersch has earned his place among the foremost jazz artists and creative musicians in the world today. He is widely recognized for his ability to steadfastly create a unique body of original works while reinventing the standard jazz repertoire investing time-tested classics with keen insight, fresh ideas and extraordinary technique. Hersch's many accomplishments include two Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance and a 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for composition. He was also nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition.

Hersch is considered to be the most prolific and widely-praised solo jazz pianist of his generation. In 2006, Palmetto Records released the solo disc In Amsterdam: Live at the Bimhuis, which led to an entire week for Hersch as solo pianist at the Village Vanguard, the first in the 70-year history of New York¹s legendary jazz club. In addition, he leads a trio, a quintet and has ongoing special collaborations with jazz and classical instrumentalists and vocalists around the world. His next trio release, Night and the Music, will be released by Palmetto on May 1st, 2007.

His career as a performer has been greatly enhanced by his composing activities, a vital part of nearly all of his live concerts and recordings. Hersch recently 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; the work was presented in March 2005 in a sold-out performance at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall as part of a six-city US tour. Hersch has toured with concert pianist Christopher O'Riley ("Heard Fresh: Music for Two Pianos") and he has also collaborated with sopranos Renée Fleming, Audra McDonald and Dawn Upshaw; violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg; and pianist Jeffrey Kahane. 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. His solo piano compositions and chamber music are published by Edition Peters.

Hersch has acted as a passionate spokesman and fund-raiser for AIDS services and education agencies since 1993. He has produced and performed on four benefit recordings and at numerous concerts for the charities Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS that have raised over $250, 000 to date.

After graduating from The New England Conservatory in 1977, Hersch relocated to New York City and quickly became one of the most in-demand pianists in town. As a sideman, he appeared with such jazz masters as saxophonists Stan Getz, Joe Henderson, and Jane Ira Bloom; flugelhornist Art Farmer; harmonica virtuoso Toots Thielemans; vibraphonist Gary Burton; and bassists Sam Jones and Charlie Haden.

Hersch has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning with Dr. Billy Taylor and on a wide variety of National Public Radio programs including Fresh Air, Jazz Set, Studio 360 and Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz. Hersch has also been awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship, grants from The National Endowment for the Arts and Meet the Composer and six composition residencies at The MacDowell Colony. A committed educator, Hersch was a faculty member at the New England Conservatory for ten years, and has taught at The New School and Manhattan School of Music; he is currently a visiting professor at Western Michigan University.

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