In thirty years of career his mark on the music scene.
Fred Hersch arrives for the first time in Naples, in Villa Pignatelli, on Thursday 25 May at 20,15:XNUMX pm as part of the Maggio della Musica, a festival organised in collaboration with the Regional Directorate of Museums Campania.
“A living legend,” according to the New Yorker, “the most innovative and surprising pianist of the last decade of jazz,” as Vanity Fair called him. Now firmly established in the pantheon of jazz piano, Hersch is endowed with a creative force and an authority that have allowed him, in a career spanning over thirty years, to leave his mark on the musical landscape as an improviser, composer, educator, bandleader, partner of illustrious artists and music stars. A fifteen-time Grammy nominee, he has obtained a dense series of prestigious awards in the jazz field.
Recent honors include the 2016 Doris Duke Artist, Jazz Pianist of the Year from the Jazz Journalists Association (2016 and 2018), and the 2017 Prix Honorem de Jazz, awarded by the Acádemie Charles Cros in recognition of his career. In 2021, he was ranked second in the Down Beat Critics Poll for Jazz Musician of the Year.
The French magazine Jazz Magazine named him Artist of the Year 2021. The album “The Song is you”, recorded together with Enrico Rava, climbed the ranking of the magazine Musica jazz, resulting Record of the Year in 2022. With more than 50 albums to his credit, Hersch consistently receives critical praise and international awards with each new release. In no other musical territory are the excellent technique and emotional richness of Hersch's art more evident than in his breathtaking solo performances. And it is alone that we will hear him in Naples.
Jazz Times described his solo piano playing as “…a complete, self-contained, exceptionally pure art form,” while All About Jazz noted that “…if we’re talking about solo piano jazz, then there are only two classes of players: Fred Hersch and then everyone else.” Of his 2020 album “Songs from Home,” All About Jazz said it represented “…a message of stillness and hope amidst the pain of life,” while NPR’s All Songs Considered called it “necessary listening.”
The same album was named one of Slate’s 10 best jazz releases of 2020. An educator and teacher, Hersch has taught at the New England Conservatory, the Juilliard School, the New School, and the Manhattan School of Music, as well as giving master classes around the world. He has received honorary degrees from Grinnell College and Northern Kentucky University.
Hersch's influence has been felt by a whole new generation of jazz pianists, from former students Brad Mehldau, Sullivan Fortner and Ethan Iverson to his colleague Jason Moran, who said: "Fred on the piano is like LeBron James on the basketball court. He is perfection." There are two Italian stops on his European tour: on the 25th in Naples and on the 26th in Monza.
Article published on May 24, 2023 - 12:43 pm
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