Top jazz pianist brings trio to Beijing

Fred Hersch. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Every since Blue Note Beijing was launched this August at the renovated site of the former US embassy near Tian'anmen Square, many internationally celebrated jazz musicians have performed there. For some of them, China is a new territory of jazz.

Fred Hersch is one of them.

Along with his trio, including bassist Johannes Weidenmueller and drummer Eric McPherson, the eight-time Grammy-winning pianist is going to perform on Sunday for the first time on the Chinese mainland — at the first Chinese branch of the Blue Note Jazz Club, the famous New York establishment.

"I am looking forward to experiencing Beijing and Chinese culture. I hope to see the Forbidden City and eat some delicious food while I am there. I love to play with other musicians and perform for attentive audiences. Each night, each tune is full of possibilities," the pianist says.

In the Chinese capital, he will perform three groups of material in his performance: original compositions; tunes by great jazz composers, including Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman and Wayne Shorter; and songs from the Great American Songbook, such as compositions by Jerome Kern, Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers.

Born in Ohio, the 61-year-old pianist began playing at 4 years old and was composing by the age of 8.

In 2006, Hersch became the first artist in the 75-year history of New York’s legendary Village Vanguard to play a weeklong engagement as a solo pianist.

With some three dozen albums to his credit as a leader or co-leader, Hersch consistently wins an international array of awards and lavish critical praise for his albums.

"I have written many compositions that I dedicate to musicians and other people who inspire me: Charlie Haden, Bill Frisell, Sam Jones, Joe Henderson, ballerina Suzanne Farrell, etc," he says. "There are so many jazz albums released every year that to be in the Top 5 of the two categories for a Grammy Award is a win in itself. It is recognition by my peers in the music industry that is most important."

In 2008, Hersch developed HIV-induced dementia. He then fell into a coma which lasted two months. The experience inspired him to release his 2011 production, My Coma Dreams, a collaboration with writer/director Herschel Garfein for 11 instrumentalists.

For two decades, Hersch has been a passionate spokesman and fundraiser for AIDS services and education agencies. He has produced and performed on four benefit recordings and in numerous concerts for charities.

Hersch's performance at Blue Note Beijing will also be part of the charity night, which is co-organized by Beijing Horizon Charity Foundation, a private foundation that supports education needs of children living with HIV, promotes AIDS prevention education, fights discrimination against people with HIV and offers HIV testing to LGBT people through the Chinese Foundation for Prevention of STD and AIDS.

If you go

7:30 pm, Oct 30. Blue Note Beijing, 23 Qianmen East Street, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 170-0000-0288.

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