Fred Hersch

An acclaimed jazz pianist, composer, and educator, Fred Hersch possesses extraordinary solo talent and brings a refined yet instinctive sensibility to both standards and his own pieces. Former students under his guidance include Brad Mehldau and Ethan Iverson of the Bad Plus. His playing, shaped by the legacies of Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson, has set a standard in contemporary jazz and earned multiple Grammy nominations, among them for the 1992 release Dancing in the Dark, the 2014 album Floating, and the 2017 recording Open Book. Additional honors encompass a 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for composition that supported Leaves of Grass, an octet work drawing on Walt Whitman’s poetry, as well as the 2016 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. Although Hersch frequently appears unaccompanied, he has issued duo projects alongside Ralph Alessi, Julian Lage, and Esperanza Spalding, with whom he recorded 2020’s Live at the Village Vanguard. In 2022 he worked with the Crosby Street String Quartet on Breath by Breath and with Enrico Rava on the ECM date The Song Is You. The following year he rejoined Esperanza Spalding for the Grammy-nominated Alive at the Village Vanguard and returned to ECM for the solo session Silent, Listening. Openly gay and having received an HIV-positive diagnosis at age 30, Hersch actively advocates for gay rights along with AIDS research and education.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1955, Hersch started classical piano studies at four and began composing before turning ten. His introduction to jazz occurred during his time at Grinnell College in Iowa. After leaving school he performed around Cincinnati, then entered the New England Conservatory to study with pianist and composer Jaki Byard. He graduated with honors in 1977 and relocated to New York City, where he worked steadily as a sideman and made his first recordings on Art Farmer’s Yama and Billy Harper’s Awakening, both issued in 1979.

Between 1980 and 1986 Hersch served on the faculty of the New England Conservatory while leading his own trio and appearing as a sideman with Chris Connor, Joe Henderson, Stan Getz, Toots Thielemans, Eddie Daniels, and additional artists. His initial leader date, the 1984 trio album Horizons, featured bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joey Baron. That same year he began an enduring partnership with clarinetist Jane Ira Bloom on As One. Throughout the decade he recorded frequently as an accompanist and issued his own albums, among them 1986’s Sarabande, 1988’s E.T.C., and 1989’s Heartsongs.

In 1993 Hersch publicly affirmed his identity as a gay man during a benefit concert for AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati and disclosed that he had been receiving treatment for AIDS since his 1984 diagnosis. From that point forward he has sustained an unwavering commitment to gay rights and AIDS-related research and education through benefit recordings, charity performances, and keynote speeches at medical conferences worldwide.

The nineties also marked the beginning of a highly productive phase, highlighted by 1990’s Evanessence: Tribute to Bill Evans, 1992’s Dancing in the Dark, and 1994’s I Never Told You: Fred Hersch Plays Johnny Mandel. Starting with 1995’s Plays Billy Strayhorn, Hersch assembled an extensive catalog on Nonesuch Records, often saluting key influences through projects such as 1996’s Plays Rodgers & Hammerstein and the Thelonious Monk-focused Thelonious from 1997. In 1998 he explored favorite material with guitarist Bill Frisell on Songs We Know.

During the 2000s Hersch maintained a vigorous output that included the ambitious three-disc Songs Without Words in 2001. After receiving the 2003 Guggenheim fellowship he released the Whitman-inspired octet recording Leaves of Grass, featuring vocalists Kurt Elling and Kate McGarry, in 2005. With 2007’s Night & the Music he returned to a smaller trio format. In 2008 he developed HIV-induced dementia and remained in a coma for two months; after extensive rehabilitation he regained his pianistic facility and issued the bossa-nova solo album Fred Hersch Plays Jobim in 2009. The trio date Whirl appeared on Palmetto in 2010, the same year The New York Times Sunday Magazine published David Hadju’s profile “Giant Steps: The Survival of a Great Jazz Pianist.”

Subsequent releases included the 2011 solo recording Alone at the Vanguard and the Grammy-nominated trio album Alive at the Vanguard a year later. In 2013 Hersch participated in three projects: Fun House with pianist Benoit Delbecq, Only Many with trumpeter Ralph Alessi, and Free Flying alongside guitarist Julian Lage. Another Grammy nomination arrived in 2014 for the trio album Floating. That year he also issued the DVD My Coma Dreams, documenting a 2011 multimedia presentation drawn from his coma experience. The live solo album Solo, captured at the Windham Civic Center Concert Hall in Windham, New York, followed in 2015. Directors Charlotte Lagarde and Carrie Lozano released the documentary The Ballad of Fred Hersch in 2016, and the next year Hersch published his memoir Good Things Happen Slowly while delivering Open Book, a set of solo performances taped at the JCC Art Center Concert Hall in Seoul, South Korea.

The Grammy-nominated Begin Again emerged in 2019, featuring arrangements by Vince Mendoza and Germany’s WDR Big Band. In 2022 Breath by Breath incorporated an extended suite informed by Hersch’s meditation practice and involved Drew Gress, Jochen Rueckert, Rogerio Boccato, and the Crosby Street String Quartet. That year he also recorded the intimate ECM duo session The Song Is You with Enrico Rava. Early in 2023 he issued Alive at the Village Vanguard, a duo album with vocalist and bassist Esperanza Spalding that received Grammy nominations for Jazz Album of the Year and Best Jazz Performance for “But Not for Me.” He revisited ECM the following year with the solo piano recording Silent, Listening.