Fred Hersch: Alive at the Vanguard
“Fred Hersch, one of the poet laureates of modern jazz piano, has also proven to be one of the most durable and forward-moving of any artist, on any arts scene.”
— Andrea Canter, Jazz Police
“Pianist Fred Hersch reaches some rarefied heights on this wise trio recording.”
— Karl Stark, Philadelphia Inquirer
“Fred Hersch's new double-disc album (on the Palmetto label) might be called Alive at the Vanguard, instead of the customary Live at . . . for two reasons. First, it's a declaration that Hersch, who's had HIV-positive for many years and not long ago slipped into a coma for six months, is alive. Second, this music is alive: fire-breathing with adventure, dance, spirits of all sorts.
His two post-coma albums before this one, Alone at the Vanguard and Whirl, while strong, had the feel, especially in retrospect, of recovery projects. The new one is something else, the work of a pianist—an artist—at peak powers. It's Hersch's best album, I think, since his 1999 live solo breakthrough, Let Yourself Go.
The jazz world is flush with great pianists these days, more so than at any time in a half-century, and Hersch, at 56, surely ranks among the top tier—along with Keith Jarrett and Jason Moran—and may be peerless in his dexterity with rhythm and rubato. No living jazz pianist is so adept, I think, at stretching and compressing the pace, and space, of a musical passage, and he does this not as a display of virtuosity but as a journey through a song, so seamlessly immersive, it's as if, for the time he's carving its contours, nothing else in the world exists.”
— Fred Kaplan, Stereophile
“In an interview for Jazz Times in 2003, Fred Hersch talked about why he loves the Village Vanguard: ‘When you play very quietly, it has a presence throughout the entire room. There’s a certain kind of stillness, a hush, that you don’t get anywhere else.’ But this new two-CD set, his third recording at the Vanguard, is not hushed. It is audacious and extravagant.”
— Thomas Conrad, Jazz Times
“A superb statement from one of the most respected pianists in jazz.”
— Matthew Kessel, New York City Jazz Record
“The "Alive" part of the disc's title may, in part, be a celebration of Hersch's recovery from a life-threatening eight-week coma in 2008; or, perhaps, it is an acknowledgment of his renewed focus and enlivened sense of freedom, the positive outcome of his brush with death. But this certainly is his finest trio outing.” — Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz “One of jazz’s finest pianists…the players combine so effortlessly and gracefully that the music achieves a truly rare apotheosis which we hear as unified whole.”
— George Kanzler, Hot House
“On this live set, Hersch is spontaneous, carefree, often humorous, even devil-may-care, and also forceful and authoritative. He plays with complete freedom of expression—whatever comes to mind, out it comes, with no regard for rules or conventions. He is currently one of jazz’s most refreshing creators.”
— Amy Duncan, Jazz History Online
“Hersch's music bristles with crisp interplay, is ripe with fine flights of melodic invention and displays the depth as well as the breadth of Hersch's musical mind. This is music that resonates long after the applause has dies down; this is music that is both exciting and soul-satisfying.”
— Richard Kamins, Steptempest.com
“…remarkably fluent and unified…extravagantly gorgeous.”
— Richard Oyama, Jazz Advance
“Hersch is simply one of the most resourceful, sensitive and versatile jazz pianists on the planet.”
— London Jazz Review
“Hersch makes his piano “sing” with strong harmonic sense; you can feel his distinct rhythmic moves in your body, and he’s got technique, based on years of classical training, that has no bounds. When his piano sings, my heart soars like a bird”.
— Stanley Fefferman, Opus One
