Cincinnati native Fred Hersch is one of the most respected and celebrated artists in Jazz today. The imaginative and versatile pianist, bandleader and composer, who has lived in New York City since the mid-’70s, boasts a remarkable discography that includes releases for labels like Nonesuch, Concord, Chesky and Angel/EMI. Those releases have notched Hersch eight Grammy nominations and a stack of glowing reviews that could reach the moon. The New York Times said Hersch is “singular among the trailblazers of their art, a largely unsung innovator of this borderless, individualistic Jazz — Jazz for the 21st century.”
Last year, Hersch celebrated his 60th birthday while continuing to take his career to new heights, performing for the first time at the Newport Jazz Festival and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and releasing the well-received Fred Hersch: Solo album, a naked exhibition of the musician’s remarkable talents that included renditions of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and Thelonious Monk’s “In Walked Bud.” Upon the album’s release, All About Jazz wrote, “When it comes to the art of solo piano in Jazz, there are two classes of performers: Fred Hersch and everybody else.”
But Hersch is far from just a solo pianist; his fearlessness and exploratory nature is why he’ll be remembered as one of the great Jazz artists of our time. Hersch has led bands of varying sizes, collaborated with vocalists and other musicians from various fields, composed an album based on Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (which was performed to a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall) and written an ambitious theatrical work, My Coma Dreams, in which he turned a near-death experience into a compelling piece of art (the project was based on visions Hersch had while in a coma brought on by a bout with pneumonia). Hersch is also an experienced educator, and his extensive work for AIDS awareness and charities (he announced he was HIV positive in the early ’90s) has raised more than $300,000.
Hersch’s return to Cincinnati for a 3 p.m. solo concert Sunday, part of Xavier University’s Jazz/Swing Series, is more than just a chance to witness a hometown boy done good; it’s a chance to witness one of Jazz music’s modern greats in peak form.
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This article appears in Mar 23-30, 2016.