Fred Hersch Trio at the 2013 Iowa City Jazz Festival

(Music begins at 2:30.) Fred Hersch (piano) performed with John Hebert (bass) and Eric McPherson (drums) at the Iowa City Jazz Festival on July 7, 2013. Audio engineered by Dan Towey.

Songs performed included...
0:02:30 "Whirl"
0:10:45 "Sad Poet"
0:20:50 "Dream of Monk"
0:27:55 "Lonely Woman" / "Nardis"
0:42:29 "At the Close of the Day"
0:49:57 "Skipping"
0:55:42 "The Wind" / "Moon and Sand"
1:11:24 "The Song is You"
1:18:27 "Played Twice" (T. Monk)

Proclaimed by Vanity Fair magazine as "the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade or so," Fred Hersch balances his internationally recognized instrumental skills with significant achievements as a composer, band leader, and theatrical conceptualist, as well as remaining an in-demand collaborator with other noted bandleaders and vocalists.

As a solo pianist (he was the first artist in the 75-year history of New York's legendary Village Vanguard to play week-long engagements as a solo pianist -- his second featured run is documented on the 2011 release, "Alone at the Vanguard"), as leader of a widely praised trio whose "Whirl" found its way onto numerous 2010 best-recordings-of-the-year lists and, as the impetus behind ambitious 2011 production, "My Coma Dreams" (a full-evening work for 11 instruments, actor/singer and animation/multimedia), Hersch has fully lived up to the approbation of the New York Times which, in a featured Sunday Magazine article, praised him as "singular among trailblazers of their art, a largely unsung innovator of this borderless, individualistic jazz -- a jazz for the 21st century."

His 2011 release "Alone at the Vanguard" earned him two GRAMMY Award nominations -- his fourth and fifth -- for Best Jazz Album and Best Improvised Jazz Solo, was awarded the 2012 Grand Prix du Disque by the Academie Charles Cros in France, and made the Best Jazz CDs of 2012 lists in Slate and Downbeat Magazine.

[raymondkarlsson]

Fantastic! FH remind me about Bill Evans and how beatiful piano trio can be.

[davidvelleman]

Fred is a genius. So well rounded: he swings, can play in and out, has phrasing up there w/ Jarrett, he has near limitless imagination, is a virtuoso and is ORIGINAL. He always has been since I first heard him.

[melodiusthud]

This only has 8900 views?  Hearing him is like opening up your consciousness.  My God....!

[barbonestreet]

If Jazz musicians had 't listened to classic music, how in the world would they have developed jazz? I can dig that folks don't appreciate Hersch, but then as an old jazz mentor once said to me. "Perhaps it is not his creativity that is wantibng, but simply that YOUR ears that are not yet ready for it." I hear Hersch as absolutely wonderful.

[cynthiahawkins]

One of the loveliest versions of "The Song Is You" I have heard in all my years! Whoa, dude...

[augustopacheco]

He is one among my faourites.It is very hard to know the best.

[DouglasShibata]

Fred Hersch é realmente um excelente pianista.... Ótimo Show! Great concert...

[gayluinstra]

This may, ... just be, ... my favorite jazz trio.  I'm 55.  And, I have a background in music, primarily keyboard.  Purely fantastic jazz musicians and composers here.  Skill level is incredible.

[gracchusbb]

Great! We've seen and heard them in Paris last month at "philharmonie"..Excellent musicians and music too!

[therasound]

Beyond...the evolution of all that has gone before...ensemble playing at the highest level...

[melodiusthud]

This is splendid!  He hears such beautiful and unique improvisations!

[antonioarcas]

1:18:28 something by T. Monk is : PLAYED TWICE ( T. Monk, 1959 )

[angiulibass]

Amazing!!!! Thanks Fred, lovely musician!

[ChristianBrennerjazz]

just wonderful ! Thanks to share this beautiful moment :) I love this pianist, one of my favourites piano players

[dimitriskaraganis]

amazing pianist ! thanks for sharing !

[frankiesangiovanni]

I like his ballad style of playing. Very large sounding chord voicings. Sounds like he's backing up a singer. Wonder what melody he's got playing in his head throughout nardis.

[CalvinLimuel]

you know those classical musicians listens to jazz music too you know. Ravel, Debussy, Chopin got some "jazz" harmony in their compositions. Bach and Mozart were master improviser. 

[gullyfoyle]

Could we hear some phrasing in the first piece coming from Chopin's "revolutionary study"??..is it only me? :) anyway, fantastic concert.

[onalyd]

right on, a little touch hear and there but this is over the top

[juhintao]

Something of phenomenal and unexplainable beauty for the musically illiterates as myself, happens at 17:01