Regretfully, I have to damn this issue with faint praise. Hersch is an accomplished pianist, articulate, rhythmically subtle and well steeped in the jazz idiom. But he lacks the intensity, the emotional power, to command attention for 45 minutes. Few jazz pianists have this ability: the inflexibility of the piano as a jazz instrument, its lack of tonal resources, makes things difficult for the jazz pianist and only the pianistic superstars can carry off prolonged solo or trio exposure.
This issue has many attractive moments but, like so many of its kind, slips too readily into cocktail lounge stuff. The choice of songs is good: the rarely played My Heart Stood Still, the oddly structured (44 bar) Moon And Sand played with a Latin touch, the evocative Cloudless Sky, the brisk, boppy One Finger Snap all start off bright with promise but, as the minutes roll on, they lead to seemingly self-indulgent maunderings, broken occasionally by rather routine bass or drum solos. The most sustained invention occurs on One Finger Snap.
Mr Hersch needed a stern producer to say: ‘That was fine. Now record the best of what you have just played in half the time.’ Then we should have had quite a jazz record. B+ except to piano freaks who may upgrade it a mark.
Discography
My Heart Stood Still; Moon And Sand: The Star Crossed Lovers; One Finger Snap (22.29) – The Surrey With The Fringe On Top; Miyako; Cloudless Sky (20.47)
Fred Hersch (p); Marc Johnson (b); Joey Baron Id) New York, probably 1984.
(Concord CJ 267)
