Fred Hersch

Fred Hersch is one of the most gifted, sensitive, and inspired living jazz musicians. This compilation of celebrated pianist Fred Hersch's best-loved recordings for Chesky culls material from three discs-1991's Forward Motion, 1993's Dancing in the Dark and 1994's The Fred Hersch Trio Plays.

Pianist Fred Hersch has made quite a few brilliant jazz albums over the course of his career, and several of them have been solo piano recordings, but this one is something special. Alone at the Vanguard is exactly what you'd expect it to be: a solo album recorded over the course of a week of engagements at The Village Vanguard, perhaps the most venerated jazz performance space in New York (and, therefore, probably in the world). In the fall of 2005, Hersch played 12 sets over the course of six nights and recorded all of them with the intention of culling them down to a single disc; in the end, Hersch decided simply to release the final set in its entirety.

Reach up to the CD shelf and pull a handful of Fred Hersch CDS down. You'll find that the pianist has a good thing going with the Village Vanguard. Alive At The Vanguard (Palmetto Records, 2012) a stellar two CD set, and terrific solo set, Alone At the Vanguard (Palmetto Records, 2011), are Hersch's most recent recordings from the legendary venue; and now he and his trio offer up Sunday Night At the Vanguard. Hersch says this is his best trio album. Almost every artist says that about their latest—that this one's the best. But he might be right. The vote here would have gone to a studio recording, Whirl (Palmetto Records, 2010), a marvelous in-the-zone effort with this same trio—John Hebert on bass, Eric McPherson playing drums—until Sunday Night At The Vanguard rolled around.

Pianist Fred Hersch paid some dues at the Village Vanguard, sitting in as a sideman there from 1979 on, playing with the bands of saxophonist Joe Henderson, trumpeter Art Farmer, alto sax man Lee Konitz, and bassist Ron Carter. But he waited until 1997 to make his debut as a leader. That debut was captured on tape, and surfaces now, years later, with the Fred Hersch Trio '97's @ The Village Vanguard.