Verified Global Musician

Fred Hersch

Fred Hersch is a pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator whose extensive catalog centers on solo piano, a long-running trio, and duos.

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Photo source · Photo: Hreinn Gudlaugsson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Career Overview

About Fred Hersch

Hersch's official biography documents more than sixty albums as leader or co-leader and a practice spanning solo piano, trio, duo, composition, theater, and teaching. His solo catalog and trio work at the Village Vanguard form two recurring lines through that output.[1]

His project and discography pages place those core formats beside vocal partnerships, chamber writing, Leaves of Grass, and the theater work My Coma Dreams. Recent ECM recordings extend both his solo and trio practices with producer Manfred Eicher.[2][3]

Ensembles and Career Threads

Bands & Projects

Leader, pianist, and composer

Fred Hersch Trio

Hersch's trio has recorded in multiple lineups and maintained a recurring Village Vanguard presence, emphasizing collective interplay alongside his compositions.[1][3]

Pianist and composer

Solo piano

The artist biography identifies twelve solo recordings through Silent, Listening, making unaccompanied piano a sustained rather than occasional part of his catalog.[1][3]

Co-leader, pianist, and arranger

Duo and vocal collaborations

Hersch's official project history includes continuing one-to-one partnerships with instrumentalists and singers, including Enrico Rava and esperanza spalding.[1][2]

Selected, Not Exhaustive

Recordings to Know

2005

Leaves of Grass

Composer, pianist, and leader

Hersch's setting of Walt Whitman poetry uses two voices and an instrumental octet in one of his large-scale composition projects.[1][3]

Release details

2014 · Palmetto Records

Floating

Trio leader, pianist, and composer

The trio album belongs to Hersch's long-running recorded partnership with bassist John Hébert and drummer Eric McPherson.[3]

Release details

2024 · ECM Records

Silent, Listening

Solo pianist and composer

This solo-piano recording documents Hersch's collaboration with ECM producer Manfred Eicher.[1][3]

Release details

Live Calendar

Upcoming Jazz DateBook Shows

Sat, Sep 26, 6:30 PM

Fred Hersch Trio at Assembly Hall

Assembly Hall · Austin

Show details

Sources

Career copy is original synthesis from the artist, label, and project sources below. Current dates come from Jazz DateBook event inventory.

  1. [1] Official biography and career overview

    Fred Hersch

  2. [2] Official composition and project guide

    Fred Hersch

  3. [3] Official selected discography

    Fred Hersch