release date: 06.01.2023 on Palmetto Records
Pianist/composer Fred Hersch and vocalist/bassist/songwriter esperanza spalding (stylized in all lower case) celebrate their captivating new album Alive at the Village Vanguard (available January 6, 2023, Palmetto Records) with a 20-date national tour Sunday, January 8 through Sunday, February 5. Due out January 6, 2023 via Palmetto Records, Alive at the Village Vanguard
“Frank Kimbrough [was] a pianist of unerring taste and touch, a composer drawn to flowing ethereality, and an improviser steeped in the art of epiphany.” – Nate Chinen, WBGO
“ [Kimbrough] was remarkably at ease in any style of jazz, turning on a dime from blocky and dissonant clusters to bebop workouts to ethereal subtleties. In all cases, his impeccable touch was balanced by a strong undercurrent of rhythm.” – Michael J. West, JazzTimes
release date: 17.06.2022 on Palmetto Records
“… vivid and moving…The sweep of this music, its complex harmonic colors, its authentic drama, make you think of Gil Evans and Maria Schneider.” – Thomas Conrad, New York City Jazz Record
“A spectacular player…Red List has integrity in its compositional structure, its high-level personnel, its accessibility to groove merchants as well as those who revel in solo bonfires. It is inspired by (and helps fund) a worthy cause. And did we mention the siren call of that low woodwinds buzz?” – Britt Robson, JazzTimes
“His bari flutters with utmost grace, his bass clarinet sobs for humanity and his alto flute floats cloud-like through moody skies.” — Ed Enright, DownBeat
release date: 07.01.2022 via Paletto Records
“[Fred Hersch is] a pianist, composer and conceptualist of rare imaginative power.” – Nate Chinen, The New York Times
“Hersch’s work has developed an intensity of intelligence and emotional directness unparalleled among his peers.” – Steve Futterman, The New Yorker
Iconic pianist/composer Fred Hersch was an early adopter of new technologies and new ways forward when the pandemic hit in early 2020. But he’s also been among the most eager to return to live performance and collaboration now that life has begun to resume some semblance of normality. In August he returned to the studio to record one of his most ambitious projects to date: Breath By Breath, his first album ever pairing jazz rhythm section with string quartet.
release date: 06.11.2020 via Palmetto Records
“Ever since I heard Fred Hersch for the first time, he not only became a dear friend but a true idol. His piano playing, his music making, his breath, style, sound and soul are absolutely unique. He sets music free. He speaks directly to all of our hearts. A true Mensch at work. Fred Hersch is a gift to all of us and Songs From Home is another proof of this simple and yet essential truth.”
– Igor Levit, celebrated concert pianist
“When it comes to the art of solo piano in jazz, there are currently two classes of performers: Fred Hersch and everybody else.” – Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz
On Songs From Home, Hersch explores nostalgic pop songs, heartfelt originals and resonant jazz classics with his inimitable expressiveness and rich invention in the intimacy of imposed isolation
release date: August 28, 2020 via Palmetto
“…a ray of sunshine from Matt Wilson.” – Nate Chinen, WBGO “Take Five”
“Between the plague and politics, 2020 seems like a good year, if you tote a pitchfork and walk on cloven hoofs. The rest of us could use some lifting up, and no one’s better suited to that job than Matt Wilson.” – Bill Meyer, DownBeat
A new Matt Wilson album isn’t so much a snapshot capturing the drummer at a particular moment in time. Rather, his recordings are more like a musical family tree, vividly illustrating the web of relationships that manifest in his music. A creative force since the 1980s, he embodies a verdant and radically unbounded aesthetic, and Hug embraces some of his deepest nourishing roots. Featuring Wilson’s long-running quartet with saxophonist Jeff Lederer, cornetist Kirk Knuffke and bassist Chris Lightcap, Hug documents one of jazz’s most potent and expressive working bands exploring a typically far-flung Wilsonian program.
Available: October 18 via Palmetto Records
One of the most influential improvising musicians currently performing—a “living legend,” per the New Yorker—the pianist and composer Fred Hersch has made groundbreaking contributions in a staggering range of creative formats. DownBeat called his unprecedented cross-disciplinary theatre piece My Coma Dreams “a brave work of art that deserves to be seen and heard.” In the New York Times, the critic Nate Chinen wrote that “solo piano playing is one of the things that Mr. Hersch does best,” before explaining how he “combines the rigours of classical training with the disciplined freedom of improvisation and explores a richly varied repertory.”
release date: 07.06.2019
Acclaimed Pianist Fred Hersch to Release Career-Spanning Album with WDR Big Band, Arranged & Conducted by Vince Mendoza
