Called “a living legend” by The New Yorker and “a master who plays it his way” (New York Times), Fred Hersch returns to Rockport leading an inspired trio. He is a seventeen-time Grammy nominee and the recipient of many of jazz’s most prestigious awards.
- Vanity Fair
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Fred Hersch, a member of jazz’s piano pantheon, has been a creative force in jazz for more than three decades. The Boston Globe hailed him as “a pristine pianist with a poet’s soul — a pair of qualities that combine to especially dazzling effect…truly transcendent.” His trio was named the #1 Jazz Group in the 2019 DownBeat Critics Poll.
Fred Hersch has released over sixty albums as a leader or co-leader. His 2022 album “Breath By Breath” features his trio and the Crosby Street String Quartet, and his 2023 album “Alive at the Village Vanguard” with Esperanza Spalding was named a Top Ten Jazz Album by DownBeat and received two Grammy nominations. Hersch has also partnered with artists like Anat Cohen, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano and Kurt Elling.
His memoir, “Good Things Happen Slowly,” chronicles his life and health struggles as the first openly gay, HIV-positive jazz musician and was named one of 2017’s Five Best Memoirs by the Washington Post and the New York Times.
A passionate advocate for AIDS services, Hersch has raised over $300,000 through benefit recordings and concerts. As an educator, he has taught at institutions like the New England Conservatory and Juilliard School, influencing pianists such as Brad Mehldau and Jason Moran, who said, “Fred at the piano is like LeBron James on the basketball court. He’s perfection.”
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