Fred Hersch at the Jazz Standard

[Lazaro Vega]

September 6, 2007

Music Review

Meeting of Jazz Minds Is a Four-Hand Conversation in

Harmony

By NATE CHINEN

As an interaction between musicians, jazz is often

characterized as a conversation. That analogy, however

fanciful or imprecise, finds a clear illustration in

duo-piano performance. Here the stage is set for an

even exchange, and hopefully a discourse. What

enlivens the situation most is a give and take between

the two parties, along with any perceptible contrasts

in temperament, aesthetic and technique.

Fred Hersch qualifies as one of jazz’s most agile

conversationalists, and this week he serves as a kind

of pianistic Charlie Rose, performing at Jazz Standard

with a sharp succession of guests. Last night’s

invitee was Brad Mehldau; tonight it’s Kenny Barron.

The series opened auspiciously, even exquisitely, with

Ethan Iverson on Tuesday night.

The pairing was rewarding for a few reasons, including

an amiable divergence of style and the sheer quality

of the musicianship. There was also the intrigue of a

protégé facing his mentor: Mr. Iverson took a moment

to credit Mr. Hersch as “the first teacher that taught

me a lot.” (He had already acknowledged the presence

in the audience of Sophia Rosoff, a renowned piano

guru who has instructed them both.)

What Mr. Hersch and Mr. Iverson have in common —

besides an erudite grasp of postwar jazz piano

traditions, which counts for a lot — is their willful

sensitivity to touch and tone. This was most obvious

throughout Mr. Hersch’s “Out Someplace,” an elegiac

tone poem that elicited some carefully collaborative

abstraction. But the same approach to articulation

could be felt on the Sonny Rollins standard “Doxy,”

slowed to a molasses-drip tempo, and on “The Cup

Bearers,” a squirrelly tune by Tom McIntosh.

Each pianist played one solo piece, making

characteristic choices. Mr. Hersch steered “The Wind,”

a ballad by Russ Freeman, toward rhapsody: in a

flowing rubato, he drew out the ballad’s inherent

sense of vulnerability. Later Mr. Iverson offered

“Laura,” the theme from the Otto Preminger film, made

famous in jazz circles by Charlie Parker. His reading

was textbook noir, more Preminger than Parker: shadowy

dissonance at both ends of the pianistic register, and

a flinty melody emerging from the sober midrange.

But even if Mr. Hersch and Mr. Iverson suggested two

distinct modes of iteration — longhand versus

linotype, perhaps — they managed to enact a genuine

colloquy. During a volley of four-bar phrases on

Thelonious Monk’s “Bemsha Swing,” they became wickedly

inventive; each new phrase was an extension of the

last, as well as a quick response.

The truest test came when they improvised in tandem,

stacking chords and phrases as if by secret design. It

happened on “Doxy” and on Mr. Hersch’s halting

“Janeology,” and finally on a fox trot version of the

bebop standard “Star Eyes.” Somehow both musicians

were speaking and hearing at once, without any trace

of confusion.

Through Sunday at Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street,

Manhattan; (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/arts/mus...amp;oref=slogin

[Tom Storer]

I wish I'd been there. I like Do the Math, Iverson's Bad-Plus blog, and his appearance on that relatively recent Billy Hart quartet CD. We've had rave reviews of his duo with Charlie Haden, and now with Hersch. He talks on his blog about collaborations with Tim Berne. I wish he'd do some more recording outside of the Bad Plus!

New York Times jazz writing cracks me up. It's as if they put on evening clothes and puff a professorial pipe as they write. For example, lines like:

But even if Mr. Hersch and Mr. Iverson suggested two distinct modes of iteration — longhand versus linotype, perhaps — they managed to enact a genuine colloquy.

Edited September 7, 2007 by Tom Storer