Begin Again (Palmetto Records)
Fred Hersch & The WDR Big Band
Released June 2019
Grammy Nominee for Best Instrumental Composition 2020
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k-0POqLbKloCbLXAC9lYkeP8v8m9_B4_I
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/4X1rG1RxunEyv0s9OZmoTM?si=nsyN8w6NTkqytCM9HpsQnQ
About:
Begin Again, Hersch’s new Palmetto release featuring the Cologne-based WDR Big Band, arranged and conducted by six-time Grammy winner Vince Mendoza, serves as both an expertly curated overview of the pianist’s oeuvre and a singular new entry in his expansive discography. The album features nine of Hersch’s original compositions, plucked from throughout his various projects and preferred formats, including one previously unrecorded piece. Mendoza’s impeccable orchestrations—robust yet refined, essential yet understated—manage to bolster Hersch’s striking gifts for melody and expressivity while also showcasing the remarkable abilities of the Grammy-winning WDR band, which DownBeat recently described as “one of Europe’s finest large jazz ensembles.” In Ellingtonian fashion, Mendoza has through experience gained a deep understanding of the WDR’s members as distinctive voices (not to mention masterful doublers), and he applies these timbres in brilliantly coloristic ways. On Begin Again, that also means granting well-deserved solo opportunities to thoughtfully expressive players like the alto saxophonists Johan Hörlén and Karolina Strassmayer, the tenor saxophonist Paul Heller, the trumpeters Ruud Breuls and Andy Haderer, the trombonists Ludwig Nuss and Andy Hunter, and the drummer Hans Dekker.
Track Listing:
1. Begin Again (Fred Hersch) 08:23
2. Song Without Words/Ballad (Fred Hersch) 05:16
3. Havana (Fred Hersch) 06:33
4. Out Someplace (Fred Hersch) 05:26
5. Pastorale (Fred Hersch) 05:18
6. Rain Waltz (Fred Hersch) 07:39
7. The Big Easy (Fred Hersch) 08:05
8. Forward Motion (Fred Hersch) 03:54
9. The Orb (Fred Hersch) 05:11
Personnel:
Fred Hersch: piano
Vince Mendoza: arranger, conductor
Wim Both: trumpet
Rob Bruynen: trumpet
Andy Haderer: trumpet
Ruud Breuls: trumpet
Johan Horlen: alto sax
Karolina Strassmayer: alto sax
Olivier Peters: tenor sax
Paul Heller: tenor sax
Jens Neufang: baritone sax
Ludwig Nuss: trombone
Andrea Andreoli: trombone
Andy Hunter: trombone
Mattis Cederberg: bass trombone, tuba
Paul Shigihara: guitar
John Goldsby: bass
Hans Dekker: drums
Recorded January 28 – February 4, 2018, at WDR Studio 4, Cologne, Germany
Produced by Fred Hersch and Vince Mendoza
Engineering: Walter Platte
Mixing: Walter Platte and Christian Schmitt
Mastering: Mark Wilder
Executive Producer: Friederike Darius
Cover Design: Douglas Heusser
Review:
It’s tempting to assume that the subtlety and nuance of pianist Fred Hersch’s Begin Again stem from the arrangements by Vince Mendoza and performances by German accompanists the WDR Big Band. Both are, after all, Grammy winners. But while the orchestrations and conducting of Mendoza and playing by the ensemble are vital, it’s Hersch’s unique use of space, and pace, that most fuel the disc.
If you were to listen without knowing about it beforehand, you’d probably never guess which musician was the bandleader. Such is Hersch’s unique captaincy amid a sea of jazz pianists since starting his solo recording career more than 35 years ago (making the fact that he’s been nominated for 14 Grammys, but never won, more of a curiosity). Begin Again mostly features reworkings from Hersch’s existing catalog, but the opening title track is the fresh exception. The pianist doesn’t solo until after alto saxophonist Johan Horlen, instead punctuating the lush harmonies of the 13 horn players and accenting the shifting meters of bassist John Goldsby and drummer Hans Dekker.
“Havana,” from Hersch’s 2012 trio release Alive at the Vanguard, features a jubilant reworking by Mendoza that includes a rousing solo by tenor saxophonist Paul Heller. Other highlights include the eerie-yet-beautiful “Out Someplace (Blues for Matthew Shepard),” which instrumentally imagines the final hours of the man whose 1998 murder in Wyoming helped lead to groundbreaking hate-crime legislation, and the percolating “Forward Motion,” which spotlights trumpeter Ruud Breuls and trombonist Andy Hunter. The album’s closer, “The Orb”—from Hersch’s otherworldly 2011 DVD My Coma Dreams—offers a slice of the pianist’s recollections from a two-month-long coma caused by pneumonia, and recovery with the help of his tireless domestic partner Scott Morgan, at the point where Hersch’s life truly did begin again.
Bill Meredith (JazzTimes)
