Fred Hersch Trio Performs Tribute to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue at the Kimmel Center,
November 7, 2008
"There isn’t a false note—technically or emotionally…a tribute to Hersch’s unerring ability to play music that is as intelligent as it is touching, as virtuosic as it is swinging."
Prolific jazz pianist-composer Fred Hersch and his Trio celebrate the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’ album Kind of Blue and the pianists, Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly, who made this best-selling jazz album legendary on Saturday, December 6, 2008 at 7:30pm in Perelman Theater.
"A poet of a pianist" (New Yorker), Hersch’s lush musical soundscapes have blended jazz elements with the refinement of classical music, earning him a place among the foremost jazz artists in the world. His trio, in various incarnations, has performed at major clubs and festivals worldwide for more than two decades. Bassist Joe Martin and drummer Nasheet Waits will join Hersch on stage to recreate works from this seminal album.
An intermission Artist Chat led by Kimmel Center Vice President of Programming and Education Mervon Mehta, along with the evening’s performers will explore the music heard in concert as well as their own Kind of Blue thoughts, memories and riffs.
This is the second performance in the Jazz Up Close: Kind of Blue Turns 50 Series scheduled for the Kimmel Center Presents 2008-09 season. The next concert in the series will be Randy Brecker honoring Miles Davis on Saturday, February 7, 2009.
Tickets for Fred Hersch Trio are $32 and $38 and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply.) For group sales call 215-790-5883.
A limited number of $10 tickets are available for every Kimmel Center Presents performance at the Kimmel Center. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office beginning 2.5 hours prior to evening curtain time and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one ticket per person.
Ohio native Fred Hersch is widely acclaimed on the international jazz scene for his ability to reinvent the jazz standard repertoire while creating his own body of provocative, original works. Recognition of his many accomplishments include a prestigious Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 2003 for composition, a Rockefeller Fellowship for a composition residency at the Bellagio Center in Italy, as well as three Grammy® nominations. Hersch’s compositional efforts and performance collaborations with artists such as pianists Jeffrey Kahane and Christopher O’Riley, violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and sopranos Renée Fleming and Dawn Upshaw span a wide variety of musical settings. He has appeared as a soloist with orchestras across the U.S. and Europe including the Pittsburgh, Utah, Vermont and Santa Rosa Symphonies; the Toronto Sinfonietta, the BBC Radio Orchestra, Hungary's Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra and the Sinfonietta Caracas of Venezuela.
Hersch has recorded more than two dozen albums as a solo artist or bandleader, and appears on over 100 recording projects as a duo collaborator, sideman or featured soloist. Recent releases include This We Know with alto saxophonist Michael Moore in June 2008; Night & the Music (2007) with his trio; as well as Concert Music 2001-2006 (2007), his first recorded compilation of classical compositions, featuring pianists Blair McMillen and Natasha Paremski, the Gramercy Trio and cellist Dorothy Lawson. In 2005, Hersch debuted Leaves of Grass, a large-scale setting of Walt Whitman’s poetry, performed by vocalists Kurt Elling and Kate McGarry with an instrumental octet.
Joe Martin is one of the most sought-after bassists on the current New York City jazz scene. Known for his warm sound, harmonic flexibility and lyrical solos, he has performed with a diverse range of musicians. Most recently, he was an integral member of Kurt Rosenwinkel’s band, documented on a forthcoming live recording from the Village Vanguard. He has also performed with Andy Bey, David Berkman, Vinicius Cantuaria, Bill Charlap, Art Farmer, Aaron Goldberg, Jon Gordon, Ari Hoenig, Joel Frahm, Ethan Iverson, Guillermo Klein, Ivan Lins, Lionel Loueke and Mingus Big Band, among many others. His debut album, Passage (2002), features tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, pianist Kevin Hays and percussionist Jorge Rossy.
American drummer, percussionist and educator Nasheet Waits began his musical studies with his father, Frederick Waits, as well as percussionists Michael Carvin and Max Roach, who later hired him as a member of the percussion ensemble M’Boom. In 1992, Waits joined alto saxophonist Antonio Hart’s first quintet as the percussion chair. He has contributed to various bands led by jazz pianist and composer Andrew Hill, as well as jazz pianist Jason Moran’s Bandwagon. Waits has performed and recorded with Geri Allen, Hamiett Bluiett, Jaki Byard, Ron Carter, Steve Coleman, Joe Lovano, Jackie McLean, Joshua Redman, Wallace Roney, Jacky Terrason and Mark Turner, among others.
Kimmel Center Presents’ 2008/2009 Season is sponsored by Citi. The Great Orchestras On Tour Series is supported by ARCWheeler. Additional support is provided by the University of Pennsylvania Health System, American Express and Interpark. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents. NBC-10 is a media partner for Kimmel Center Presents.
Free in the Plaza programming and subsidized tickets offered to the community and social service groups for $10 are made possible through the Wachovia Gateway to the Arts Community Access Program, supported by a generous grant from the Wachovia Foundation.
The Kimmel Center is the recipient of partnership funding through the nationally recognized PNC "Grow Up Great" initiative, a ten-year, $100 million investment in preparing children for success in school and life. Funding gives support to the Kimmel Center’s early childhood program "Bop and Swing," an arts program for children 1-5 years old, designed to promote an appreciation for American culture.
KIMMEL CENTER PRESENTS SPONSORED BY CITI
Saturday, December 6, 2008 | 7:30pm
Perelman Theater
Jazz Up Close Series
Fred Hersch Trio
Fred Hersch, piano
Joe Martin, bass
Nasheet Waits, drums
Saturday, December 6, 2008 | 6pm
Commonwealth Plaza | Free in the Plaza
ArtJaz Gallery Exhibit
Experience the messages of jazz and more in this exhibit of paintings and mixed media. The exhibit will be featured in Commonwealth Plaza prior to the ticketed performance by the Fred Hersch Trio, part of the Jazz Up Close Series in Perelman Theater.
Saturday, December 6, 2008 | Intermission
Perelman Theater Stage | Artist Chat
An intermission Artist Chat led by Kimmel Center Vice President of Programming and Education Mervon Mehta, along with the evening’s performers will explore the music heard in concert as well as their own Kind of Blue thoughts, memories and riffs.
> index of news releases
> For more information, and to request high resolution images for press use, please
send us a message online.