Fred Hersch: Silent, Listening (CD Review)

by Karl Nehring

Billy Strayhorn/Duke Ellington: Star-crossed Lovers; Fred Hersch: Night Tide Light; Akrasia; Silent, Listening; Starlight; Aeon; Little Song; Russ Freeman: The Wind; Hersch: Volon; Sigmund Romberg/Oscar Hammerstein II: Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise; Alec Wilder/Ben Berenberg: Winter of My Discontent. Fred Hersch, piano. ECM 2799 589 0962

The veteran American jazz pianist Fred Hersch (b. 1955) has had some daunting challenges in his life, which you can learn from the pianist himself in this YouTube video  We previously reviewed an album that Hersch recorded in his home during the dark early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. That album was recorded on a less than ideal piano in a less than ideal (at least in terms of recording acoustics) room; however, Hersch’s talent and love for the music made his 2021 release Songs from Home (Palmetto PM2197) a winning collection of tunes that is well worth a listen (you can find our review here). Fast-forward to April 2024 and we have a new release from Hersch on the ECM label, this one recorded under much different circumstances, on a beautifully tuned piano in an acoustically perfect European hall under the watchful eyes and ears of a world-class producer and engineer.

 

As you can see from the list of titles above, the program is a mix of covers and originals by Hersch. The mood throughout, however, is consistent from one track to the next. I nearly typed “cool and calm,’ but then thought the better of it. “Warm and calm” might be a better way to put it, for Hersch’s playing is intimate, poetic, communicative, searching, measured – warm and calm, reassuring and inviting. His compositions have at times the feeling of being improvised on the spot. Listeners will find themselves being drawn into Hersch’s musical imagination, in some sense searching with him for the next notes along his musical path. This sense of closeness is enhanced by the superb engineering. The only thing that would make this release even finer would be liner notes; fortunately, however, you can glean more information about the recording from the pianist himself by watching this video from ECM. 

Even without notes (not unusual with ECM), Silent, Listening is an album that offers a remarkably rewarding listening experience to those music lovers who appreciate commitment and communication expressed with probing simplicity. It is a beautiful album, highly recommended.