Fred Hersch, a jazz pianist, gives his all to improvising on his solo album "Silent, Listening," creating and playing music on the fly that frequently lacks melody, meter, or shape.
The experience of listening to them may be both taxing and gratifying. Subdued and beautiful colors are created by the impressionistic technique of the many-time Grammy nominee.
Those who are familiar with the work of producer and ECM Records founder Manfred Eicher will recognize the style as chamber jazz, which is more akin to classical music than the blues. This coming Friday, the album will hit stores.
Hersch is making a triumphant return to the Swiss studio where he and trumpeter Enrico Rava produced their debut ECM album, "The Song Is You," in 2022. Hersch makes excellent use of his instrument, and the result is a clean, light sound that is typical of the label.
He plucks the piano's inner strings and experiments with its upper and lower octaves. He plays delicately spaced out sequences of single notes, displaying a lack of interest in being flashy.
Clusters splash, splay, and saunter, and every so often there's a forte chord to add shocking contrast. In the midst of the erratic but alluring rhythm of "Starlight" and towards the conclusion of the reflective "The Wind," melodies occasionally surface.
The roles that Hersch's hands perform are complementary or contrasting, and they interact with one another. The rumbling bass is countered with trills and treble toggles. Though Hersch's lively "Little Song" is full of upbeat, joyful energy, his other original pieces lean more toward a melancholy, otherworldly, or nocturnal (his words).
His lyrical manner on covers stands in stark contrast to the ethereal, atonal music. As the sun goes down, the music "Star-Crossed Lovers" by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn transforms into a soothing study of mournful melody. Hersch turns "Softly, as In a Morning Sunrise" into a catchy, upbeat toe-tapper, and he saves his bluesiest rendition for last, "Winter of My Discontent," which manages to create an enduring radiance.
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