Fred Hersch Trio Legendary jazz innovator and eight-time Grammy® nominated pianist & composer blazes into BLU with all-star trio for must-hear concert event! Co-presented by Steinway Piano Gallery Cleveland. Featuring John Hébert, Eric McPherson.

Praised in a New York Times Sunday Magazine feature as “singular among the trailblazers of their art, a largely unsung innovator of this borderless, individualistic jazz—a jazz for the 21st century,” the pianist Fred Hersch balances his internationally recognized instrumental and composing skills with significant achievements as a bandleader, collaborator and theatrical conceptualist.
 
Hersch – who as leader or co-leader has over three dozen albums to his name — has featured himself as either a solo performer or at the helm of varied small ensembles, which in addition to his celebrated trio, include a quintet and his unconventional Pocket Orchestra. Of Floating (Palmetto), Hersch’s recent bestselling CD with his long-time band-mates bassist John Hébert and drummer Eric McPherson, Nate Chinen of The New York Times wrote, “Mr. Hersch has been making acclaimed trio releases since his debut album as a leader, 30 years ago. He hasn’t made one better than this…an extravagantly beautiful new album.” It was nominated for two 2104 Grammy Awards, for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance (for the CD) and Best Improvised Jazz Solo; those were his seventh and eighth nominations both as jazz pianist and as composer.
 

“…a pianist, composer and conceptualist of rare imaginative power…”
– Nate Chinen [The New York Times]

 
Hersch has also collaborated with an astonishing range of instrumentalists and vocalists throughout worlds of jazz (Joe Henderson, Charlie Haden, Art Farmer, Stan Getz and Bill Frisell); classical (Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Christopher O’Riley); and Broadway (Audra McDonald). Long admired for his sympathetic work with singers, Hersch has joined with such notable jazz vocalists as Nancy King, Norma Winstone and Kurt Elling.
 
In 2006 Hersch 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. His 2011 release, Alone at the Vanguard received Grammy Award nominations for Best Jazz Album and Best Improvised Jazz Solo. 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. His newest CD Fred Hersch: SOLO will be released on Palmetto Records in September, 2015.
 
In 2003 Hersch created Leaves of Grass (Palmetto Records), a large-scale setting of Walt Whitman’s poetry for 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. His acclaimed 2010 theatrical project, My Coma Dreams (based on imaginings Hersch had during a two-month coma), is a full-evening work for an actor/singer, 11 instrumentalists and animation/multimedia; it has released on DVD by Palmetto Records. A disc of his through-composed works, Fred Hersch: Concert Music 2001-2006, has been released by Naxos Records. He was the recipient of a 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Music Composition among his many awards and honors.
 

“…the most arrestingly innovative pianist over the last decade…”
– Tad Hendrickson [Vanity Fair]

 
For two decades Hersch has been a passionate spokesman and fund-raiser for AIDS services and education agencies. He has produced and performed on benefit recordings and in numerous concerts for charities, including Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. He has also been a keynote speaker and performer at international medical conferences in the U.S. and Europe.
 
He is currently a member of the Jazz Studies faculty of Rutgers University. And 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.”

 
As a solo pianist, composer, bandleader, and theatrical conceptualist, Fred Hersch lives up to the praise of the New York Times, who, in a featured Sunday Magazine piece, aptly declared him, “singular among the trailblazers of their art, a largely unsung innovator of this borderless, individualistic jazz – a jazz for the 21st century.” With three-dozen recordings as a leader/co-leader, and numerous awards including a 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, and being named Jazz Pianist of the Year 2011 by The Jazz Journalists Association. He is also the first artist in the 75-year history of New York’s legendary Village Vanguard to play weeklong engagements as a solo pianist. He has received eight Grammy® nominations – as pianist and composer (two in 2012 for his historic Alone at the Vanguard). Hersch is among the most admired of contemporary jazz musicians, having collaborated with an astonishing range of instrumentalists and vocalists throughout worlds of jazz (Joe Henderson, Charlie Haden, Art Farmer, Stan Getz and Bill Frisell); classical (Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Christopher O’Riley); and Broadway (Audra McDonald). Dubbed by Vanity Fair magazine as “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade or so,” Hersch has been an obvious influence on a new generation of pianists including former Hersch student Brad Mehldau and Jason Moran, and remains an in-demand collaborator with other noted bandleaders and vocalists. The leader of a celebrated trio whose Floating received two 2014 Grammy® Nominations, he also placed as #3 Jazz Pianist in the 2015 Downbeat Critic´s Poll. Hersch also recently mounted the ambitious production, “My Coma Dreams,” a critically-acclaimed full-evening multimedia work available on DVD. [Photo: Vincent Soyez]
 
Don’t miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear this living legend as he makes his way back to his homestate of Ohio for a very rare & special appearance – get tickets today!
 

$20