Revered pianist/composer Fred Hersch reemerged from the pandemic with one of his most ambitious and acclaimed projects to date: Breath By Breath, his first album ever pairing jazz rhythm section with string quartet. The album found Hersch's trio featuring bassist Drew Gress and drummer Jochen Rueckert joined by the Crosby Street String Quartet, a new ensemble formed especially for the recording. DownBeat called the album, "An amazingly satisfying listening experience," while WBGO hailed it simply as, "Exquisite."
On May 6, 2022, Hersch shares one more piece from that historic session. The pianist's gorgeous new single, "This Is Always," was recorded during the same sessions and boasts the same vibrant blend of nuanced improvisation and lush, richly layered string writing. While the album consisted entirely of Hersch's original compositions, "This Is Always" showcases the pianist's legendary gift for wringing profound, deeply personal emotion from a standard -- in this case the tender Harry Warren/Mack Gordon ballad that's been interpreted by everyone from Charlie Parker to Chet Baker to Sammy Davis Jr.
Released in January on Palmetto Records, Breath By Breath drew inspiration from Hersch's longtime practice of mindfulness meditation, centered on the eight-movement "Sati Suite." But while the album is certainly contemplative and lustrous, it's far from being merely an ambient backdrop for blissful relaxation - the music on Breath By Breath is as fully engaged and emotionally rich as any that Hersch has made over the course of his career.
Joining Hersh on the album are bassist Drew Gress, who was a member of the pianist's first trio and has been an inspiring bandstand partner for more than three decades. Jochen Rueckert is one of the most in-demand drummers on the modern scene, having played with such greats as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, Melissa Aldana and Pat Metheny. The Crosby Street String Quartet, named for the NYC address where they first rehearsed with Hersch, combines four of the city's busiest freelance string players: violinists Joyce Hammann and Laura Seaton, violist Lois Martin, and cellist Jody Redhage Ferber.
"String quartets have been some of my favorite music to listen to my whole life," Hersch explains. As he writes in the album's liner notes, "I grew up listening to string quartets as a very young musician in Cincinnati. My piano teacher was the wife of the cellist in the famous LaSalle Quartet. I used to lie on the rug in their living room as an elementary school student while they rehearsed, quietly following along, hearing how the viola part meshed with the first violin, or the second violin and the cello. And ever since I started studying composition at age eight, almost all of my music has always focused on four melodic parts - so string quartets are a natural musical configuration for me."
Beginning with Hersch's gossamer harmonies solo, evoking the full dramatic potential of the song in a contemplative solo, "This Is Always" is fully in keeping with the album's radiant sound. Gress' bass tone is as warm and enveloping as an embrace, while Rueckert's brush work is a hushed, comforting whisper. The quartet doesn't reveal itself until the three-minute mark, arising from Hersch's solo with such subtlety that it seems to lift the song before it's even noticed. The standard fell outside of the conceptual unity of the suite, but this classic tune is now able to shine on its own.
Fred Hersch
A select member of jazz's piano pantheon, Fred Hersch is an influential creative force who has shaped the music's course over more than three decades. A fifteen-time Grammy nominee, Hersch has long set the standard for expressive interpretation and inventive creativity. A revered improviser, composer, educator, bandleader, collaborator and recording artist, Hersch has been proclaimed "the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade" by Vanity Fair, "an elegant force of musical invention" by The L.A. Times, and "a living legend" by The New Yorker. For decades Hersch has been firmly entrenched as one of the most acclaimed and captivating pianists in modern jazz, whether through his exquisite solo performances, as the leader of one of jazz's era-defining trios, or in eloquent dialogue with his deeply attuned duo partners. His brilliant 2017 memoir, Good Things Happen Slowly, was named one of 2017's Five Best Memoirs by the Washington Post and The New York Times.
fredhersch.com
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Photo Credits: Stephanie Berger
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