Fred Hersch Trio Presented by South Florida JAZZ March 9, 2013

South Florida JAZZ

presents

jazz pianist and composer,
5-time Grammy nominee,

Jazz Journalists' Pianist of the Year,

Fred Hersch Trio

on March 9, 2013.

(Featured in the March edition of Jazz & Blues Florida at

www.JazzBluesFlorida.com  - to be posted 3/1/13)

Mr. Hersch is widely considered one of the finest living American jazz pianists. He is not only creative and technically accomplished, he is among the most influential musicians of his era.  He is making a rare South Florida appearance with his newest trio.

South Florida JAZZ, South Florida’s premier modern jazz organization. is thrilled to present the Fred Hersch Trio on Saturday, March 9, 2013, 8:00 PM. This concert will take place at the Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center on the Nova Southeastern University campus, 3100 Ray Ferrero, Jr Blvd, Davie 33314. Tickets are $40 ($15 for students) and can be purchased from the Broward Center box office by calling 954.462.0222 option #4 in Broward; or online at southfloridajazz.org.

2013 Concerts
Tickets: $40 and $15 for students with I.D.

All seating is reserved

March 9, 2013 – 8:00 PM
Fred Hersch Trio

“A brilliant technician, a thoughtful, elegant improviser; an artist with a curious ear.”                                                                       

- Fernando Gonzalez, The Miami Herald

DownBeat magazine called pianist and composer Fred Hersch "one of the small handful of brilliant musicians of his generation" and he has earned a place among the foremost jazz artists in the world today, having solidified a reputation as a versatile master of jazz piano, as well as a relentlessly probing composer and conceptualist. He is widely recognized for his ability steadfastly to create a unique body of original works while reinventing the standard jazz repertoire – investing time-tested classics, particularly those by Thelonious Monk, with keen insight, fresh ideas and extraordinary technique. Whether unaccompanied, in duo, working with his trio, qu intet or orchestral ensembles, Hersch has explored the jazz tradition to its fullest even as he opens new and undiscovered doors. Hersch's numerous accomplishments include a 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for composition, and five Grammy® nominations for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Best Instrumental Composition, and Best Jazz Album. He has appeared on over one hundred recordings, including more than two-dozen albums as bandleader or solo pianist.

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Hersch began playing the piano as a four-year-old. Much to his teacher's chagrin, a career in jazz could have been foreshadowed by the young Fred's propensity to improvise on the work of classical masters. Broadway original cast albums and his grandmother's collection of sheet music fed an early interest in popular songs. Hersch's musical journey led him to Boston's New England Conservatory, where he graduated with honors in 1977. Heading south to New York City, Hersch quickly became one of the most in-demand pianists in town, while also working as a soloist and in duo settings at the late, lamented Bradley's. As a sideman, he has appeared with such outstanding jazz artists as saxophonists Stan Getz, Joe Henderson, and Jane Ira Bloom; flugelhornist Art Farmer; harmonic a wizard Toots Thielemans; vibraphonist Gary Burton; bassists Sam Jones and Charlie Haden.

Mr. Hersch has acted as a passionate spokesman and fundraiser for AIDS services and education agencies since 1993, a cause to which he is especially devoted given his own courageous 26-year struggle with HIV. His most recent trio CD, Whirl (Palmetto Records), was recorded after a protracted life-threatening illness and two-month coma in 2008. It received widespread attention and rave reviews in the media. The culmination of that illness also sparked the commission of the multimedia production “My Coma Dreams” that premiered in May 2011. Just prior, he once again played a week sol o at the venerable Village Vanguard (he had also done so in 2005, the only pianist so honored). The final set of that engagement was released in 2011 under the title Fred Hersch – Alone at the Village Vanguard (Palmetto Records).

Mr. Hersch has been awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship, grants from The National Endowment for the Arts, and numerous composition residencies.  A committed educator, he conducted a Professional Training Workshop for Young Musicians at The Weill Institute at Carnegie Hall in 2008. He has given master classes and workshops around the world and teaches at The New School and The Manhattan School of Music; in addition to serving on the Jazz Studies faculty of The Juilliard School of Music and The New England Conservatory.

ARTISTIC PERSONNEL
Fred Hersch – piano
John Hebert – double bass
Eric McPherson – drums

April 13, 2013 – 8:00 PM

John Scofield’s Hollowbody Band featuring Mike Stern

It is helpful to understand that “hollow body” refers to a guitar construction! The band features two guitarists - the other being the redoubtable Mike Stern - who were Gary Burton protégés and also played in 1980s iterations of the Miles Davis band, giving both bona fide fusion credentials. Scofield, or “Sco,” as he is universally known, has influenced jazz since the late 70’s and is still going strong. Sco is a masterful jazz improviser whose music generally falls somewhere between post- bop jazz, funk-edged electronica, and even R & B. He is comfortable in several idioms and blurs the lines at will creating a distinctive musical style and personality.

May 11, 2013 – 8:00 PM

Tom Harrell Quintet

A supreme trumpeter and flugelhornist, Tom Harrell creates a seemingly endless flow of bubbling, intricate ideas conveyed with an almost serene delivery. Neither aggressively avant-garde, nor riveted in the past, Tom Harrell’s music simply celebrates sonic beauty for its own sake. Praised for his pure melodic brilliance, he is widely recognized as one of the most creative and uncompromising jazz instrumentalists and composers of our time. For over four decades, close to 300 recordings, and numerous accolades, Tom manages to stay fresh. His quintet has shown remarkable continuity and cohesion. It is a great band.

June 8, 2013 – 8:00 PM

Kurt Elling

There are no obvious parallels in the music industry. Chicago native Kurt Elling is the greatest male jazz singer – or just jazz singer – of our time. In a career spanning 16 years, Elling has risen to international prominence as a jazz artist and creative singer. An intellectual superman, he is a master of “vocalese” and scatting. Remarkably, each of his nine albums was nominated for a Grammy® Award and Dedicated to You won in 2010. He is a perennial critics poll-winner and his quartet tours the world, performing to critical acclaim in Europe, Asia, Canada, Israel, and Australia. This will be Mr. Elling’s fifth performance for South Florida JAZZ.

   Funding for this organization is provided in part by the Broward County Board of Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Division.

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