Fred Hersch: The Total Package
Article by Will Friedwald (The Wall Street Journal)
Fred Hersch is the total packag as a jazz pianist; it's not merely that he's the most lyrical keyboardist playing today, he's also one of the most supremely rhythmic. It's not just that he writes brilliant originals, but that he's a master of interpretation, as he shows in ingenious albums devoted to everyone from Thelonious Mink ti Rodgers & Hammerstein. Even on tunes not part of his most revent album, "Whirl," he makes you feel that he can keep a melody (such as "From This Moment On," his opener on Wednesday), spinning in the air and levitating well above the ceiling of the Vanguard, yet rhythmically still keeping both feet firmly on the ground. His "Sad Poet," dedicated to Antonio Carlos Jobim, and "Havana," a Cuban-style bolero, show that he can successfully evoke the rhythm idioms of the other cultures while remaining intractably himself. (02/12/2012)
