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The Pacific Jazz Institute welcomes 8-time Grammy nominee jazz pianist Fred Hersch for two nights, June 16 & 17. Joining Hersch for the Jazz Alley shows are band members John Hebert (bass) and Eric McPherson (drums). Show times Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30pm. Doors at 5:30pm each night. Purchase tickets HERE
Proclaimed by Vanity Fair magazine as, “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade or so,” 8-time Grammy nominee Fred Hersch balances his internationally recognized instrumental skills with significant achievements as a composer, bandleader, as well as remaining an in-demand collaborator with other noted bandleaders and vocalists. As a solo pianist (the first in the 75-year history of New York’s legendary Village Vanguard to play week-long engagements), and as leader of a widely praised trio — Hersch has fully lived up to the approbation of the New York Times who, in a featured Sunday Magazine article, praised him as “singular among the trailblazers of their art, a largely unsung innovator of this borderless, individualistic jazz – a jazz for the 21st century.” He was nominated for his eighth Grammy Award just this year.
A more recently-gained title has been and theatrical conceptualist, after masterminding behind the ambitious 2011 production, “My Coma Dreams,” a full-evening work for 11 instrumentalists, actor/singer and animation/multimedia it was based on dreams he retained after emerging from a 2-month coma in the summer of 2008.
For two decades Hersch has been a passionate spokesman and fund-raiser for AIDS services and education agencies. He has produced and performed on four benefit recordings and in numerous concerts for charities including Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS; his efforts have raised more than $250,000. He has also been a keynote speaker and performer at international medical conferences in the U.S. and Europe.
Hersch has 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 addition to his more than three-dozen recordings as a leader/co-leader, his numerous awards include a 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for composition. Hersch is considered to be the most prolific and celebrated solo jazz pianist of his generation. In 2006, Palmetto released the solo CD Fred Hersch In Amsterdam: Live at the Bimhuis and 2009 welcomed his eighth solo disc, Fred Hersch Plays Jobim, cited as one of the year’s Top Ten jazz releases by NPR and the Wall Street Journal. 2011 also saw Hersch place 4th in the Downbeat Critic’s Poll and win as Jazz Pianist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. www.fredhersch.com
This is an advance sale/pre-pay show with reserved seating. All purchases are non-refundable. Seats may be purchased at jazzalley.com or by phoning Jazz Alley at 206-441-9729. All sets are all ages. The Pacific Jazz Institute at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin. Dining is optional.
