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Learn 50 things about pianist Fred Hersch.
1. In 2006 he became the first artist in the 75-year history of New York's legendary Village Vanguard to play a weeklong engagement as a solo pianist.
2. His second solo run at the Vanguard was documented on the 2011 release Alone at the Vanguard, which received Grammy Award nominations for Best Jazz Album and Best Improvised Jazz Solo-two of the eight Grammy nominations Hersch has earned in his more than three dozen recordings as a leader and co-leader.
3. Hersch's latest trio CD with bassist John Hebert and drummer Eric McPherson, Floating (Palmetto) was nominated for two 2015 Grammy awards in the Best Jazz Album and Best Jazz Solo categories.
4. "Mr. Hersch has been making acclaimed trio releases since his debut album as a leader, 30 years ago," wrote Nate Chinen of The New York Times. "He hasn't made one better than this...an extravagantly beautiful new album."
5. The trio's two-CD set Alive at the Vanguard was awarded the 2012 Grand Prix du Disque by the Académie Charles Cros in France and named one of the year's best CDs by Downbeat.
6. An artist of unbounded imagination and ambition-"one of the small handful of brilliant musicians of his generation," as Downbeat put it-Hersch has gained great acclaim for his solo work.
7. In 2006, Palmetto released Fred Hersch In Amsterdam: Live at the Bimhuis.
8. 2009 welcomed his eighth solo disc, Fred Hersch Plays Jobim.
9. His eighth solo disc was cited as one of the year's Top Ten jazz releases by NPR and the Wall Street Journal.
10. Alone won the Coup de Coeur de l'Académie Charles Cros in 2011.
11. Jazz Journalists Association named Hersch its Jazz Pianist of the Year.
12. In 2015 he was nominated for two JJA Awards - for Pianist and Small Ensemble of the Year for his trio.
13. He also placed as #3 Jazz Pianist on the 2015 Downbeat Critic's Poll.
14. Composing has been a vital and indelible part of Hersch's live concerts and CDs.
15. In 2003 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; the work was presented to a sold-out Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2005 as part of a six-city U.S. tour.
16. Hersch's 2010 theatrical project, My Coma Dreams, has been performed in Montclair, N.J.; New York City; San Francisco and Berlin.
17. Based on visions Hersch had during a two-month coma in 2008, it includes full-evening work for an actor/singer, 11 instrumentalists and animation/multimedia; Palmetto has released a DVD of the Columbia University performance from November 2014.
18. A New York Times Sunday Magazine feature before the debut of My Coma Dreams praised Hersch as "singular among the trailblazers of their art, a largely unsung innovator of this borderless, individualistic jazz-a jazz for the 21st century."
19. Hersch and numerous other artists have recorded more than 80 of his jazz compositions.
20. A disc of his through-composed works, Fred Hersch: Concert Music 2001-2006, has been released by Naxos Records. The prestigious firm Edition Peters published these compositions.
21. In 2014, Hersch garnered his sixth Grammy nomination for his solo on "Duet" from Free Flying, a duo album with guitarist Julian Lage that received a rare 5-Star rating from Downbeat.
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23. Hersch has collaborated with an astonishing range of instrumentalists and vocalists throughout 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).
24. Long admired for his sympathetic work with singers, Hersch has joined with such notable jazz vocalists as Nancy King, Norma Winstone and Kurt Elling.
25. Hersch has featured himself as either a solo performer or at the helm of varied small ensembles, which in addition to his trio include a quintet and as his Pocket Orchestra, an unconventional lineup of piano, trumpet, voice and percussion.
26. Born in Cincinnati on Oct. 21, 1955, Hersch began playing the piano at age four.
27. He was composing at eight.
28. His awards include a 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for composition; a Rockefeller Fellowship for a Bellagio residency; grants from Chamber Music America, The National Endowment for the Arts and Meet the Composer; seven composition residencies at The MacDowell Colony; and commissions from The Gilmore Keyboard Festival, The Doris Duke Foundation, Roomful of Teeth, The Miller Theatre at Columbia University, The Gramercy Trio and The Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
29. Hersch has been a featured guest on CBS Sunday Morning with Dr. Billy Taylor as well as on a variety of National Public Radio programs, including Fresh Air, Jazz Set, Morning Edition, Studio 360 and Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz.
30. Morning with Dr. Billy Taylor as well as on a variety of National Public Radio programs, including Fresh Air, Jazz Set, Morning Edition, Studio 360 and Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz.
31. For two decades Hersch has been a passionate spokesman and fund-raiser for AIDS services and education agencies.
32. He has produced and performed on four benefit recordings and in numerous concerts for charities including Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS; his efforts have raised more than $300,000.
33. He has also been a keynote speaker and performer at international medical conferences in the U.S. and Europe.
34. A committed educator, Hersch has taught at New England Conservatory, The Juilliard School, The New School and The Manhattan School of Music, and conducted a Professional Training Workshop for Young Musicians at The Weill Institute at Carnegie Hall in 2008.
35. He is currently a member of the Jazz Studies faculty of Rutgers University.
36. Hersch's influence has been widely felt on a new generation of jazz pianists, from former students Brad Mehldau and Ethan Iverson to his colleague Jason Moran, who has said, "Fred at the piano is like LeBron James on the basketball court. He's perfection."
37. He was the first person to play week-long engagements as a solo pianist New York's Village Vanguard.
38. He has recorded more than 70 of his jazz compositions.
39. He won national piano competitions starting at the age of ten.
40. Hersch first became interested in jazz while at Grinnell College in Iowa.
41. He dropped out of school and started playing jazz in Cincinnati.
42. He continued his studies at the New England Conservatory, attracting attention from the press - "a fine showcase for Fred Hersch" - in a college recital.
43. On graduation, he became a jazz piano instructor at the college.
44. Hersch has accompanied jazz vocalists such as Nancy King, Norma Winstone and Kurt Elling.
45. 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.
46. Hersch has produced and performed on four benefit recordings and in numerous concerts for charities including Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS which had raised over $250,000 as of June, 2013.
47. Downbeat magazine described Hersch as "one of the small handful of brilliant musicians of his generation."
48. 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."
49. In 2008, Hersch developed HIV-induced dementia. He then fell into a coma which lasted two months.
50. When he regained consciousness, he had lost all muscular function as a result of his long inactivity and could not play the piano. After intense rehabilitation, he made a full recovery.
Source: www.fredhersch.com
