Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In and Out of Jazz

Jazz could not contain Fred Hersch. Hersch’s prodigious talent as a sideman—a pianist who played with the giants of the twentieth century in the autumn of their careers, classical, sweeping in elements of pop, including Art Farmer and Joe Henderson—blossomed further in the eighties and beyond into a compositional genius that defied the boundaries of bop, and folk to create a wholly new music.

Good things Happen Slowly is his memoir. Crown archetype. It’s the story of the first openly gay, most direct, hiv-positive jazz player; a deep look into the cloistered jazz culture that made such a status both transgressive and groundbreaking; and a profound exploration of how Hersch’s two-month-long coma in 2007 led to his creating some of the finest, and most emotionally compelling music of his career.

Remarkable, music, and at times lyrical, creativity, recovery, and a powerfully brave narrative of illness, Good Things Happen Slowly is an evocation of the twilight of Post-Stonewall New York, and the glorious reward of finally becoming oneself.


Open Book

But it also frankly reveals his story as the first openly gay, hiv-positive jazz musician, tracing his path through hedonistic post-Stonewall New York City to the dramatic two-month medically induced coma in 2007 from which he emerged to make some of the most stunning and captivating music of his career.

Vocalists kurt elling and kate mcGarry will reprise their roles from the original project, which sets the verse of American bard Walt Whitman. On september 12, the esteemed publishers Crown Archetype Penguin Random House will release Good Things Happen Slowly, Hersch's bravely confessional memoir. The album arrives during a momentous month for Hersch.

Unique in hersch's extensive discography, glimmering landscape, a compelling journey through an abstract, the stream-of-consciousness gem is a miniature masterpiece of narrative development, revealing that in his early 60s Hersch continues to take creative risks and daunting inventive leaps. The seven pieces on open book out september 8 on Palmetto Records offer some of the finest, most unguardedly emotional solo music that Hersch has created in a career unique for its profound poignancy and passion.

The book covers the pianist s meteoric rise in jazz from his sideman days alongside masters like Art Farmer and Joe Henderson to his gradual recognition as one of the most individualistic and innovative artists of his generation, a ten-time Grammy Award nominee and winner of countless accolades including being named a 2016 Doris Duke Artist as well as the same year s Jazz Journalists Association Pianist of the Year.

The centerpiece of open book, and the spark that ignited the album, is the nearly 20-minute improvisation Through the Forest. Later that month hersch will reprise his ambitious leaves of Grass full-evening piece at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Appel Room, the first time the song cycle has been performed in New York City since 2005.

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LEAVES OF GRASS

New sealed in its original packaging. Fred hersch- Open Book.


Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century

He traces the influence of commercialized jazz education and reflects on the implications of a globalized jazz ecology. One of jazz’s leading critics gives us an invigorating, richly detailed portrait of the artists and events that have shaped the music of our time. Nate chinen, who has chronicled this evolution firsthand throughout his journalistic career, vividly sets the backdrop, charting the origins of jazz historicism and the rise of an institutional framework for the music.

Woven throughout the book is a vibrant cast of characters—from the saxophonists Steve Coleman and Kamasi Washington to the pianists Jason Moran and Vijay Iyer to the bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding—who have exerted an important influence on the scene. Fred hersch- Open Book. He unpacks the synergies between jazz and postmillennial hip-hop and R&B, illuminating an emergent rhythm signature for the music.

This is an adaptive new music for a complex new reality, and Playing Changes is the definitive guide. Playing changes boldly expands on the idea, highlighting a host of significant changes—ideological, technological, theoretical, and practical—that jazz musicians have learned to navigate since the turn of the century.

Grounded in authority and brimming with style, playing Changes is the first book to take the measure of this exhilarating moment: it is a compelling argument for the resiliency of the art form and a rejoinder to any claims about its calcification or demise. Playing changes, ” in jazz parlance, has long referred to an improviser’s resourceful path through a chord progression.

And he shows how a new generation of shape-shifting elders, including Wayne Shorter and Henry Threadgill, have moved the aesthetic center of the music.


Alive at the Vanguard

A new piano trio recording by five-time Grammy nominee Fred Hersch offers the rare opportunity to recalibrate expectations about the most fundamental of all jazz settings. Captured in the heat of creative ferment at the village vanguard, preternatural interplay, the sanctified venue that has long served as the pianist's second home, Hersch's trio with bassist John Hérbert and drummer Eric McPherson displays all the rhythmic daring, harmonic sophistication and passionate lyricism that makes it one of the era's definitive ensembles.

Reviewing the trio of the week of the recording, The New York Times Nate Chinen referred to the group's stronger sense of itself. This may be the best trio playing on record, and the way we play together, sound, being in the moment, in terms of range, ' says Hersch. The double album features a diverse array of seven scintillating new Hersch originals, four American Songbook gems, and seven classic jazz tunes.

It sounds different than a studio album, and it should sound different, so you feel like you're there. Fred hersch- Open Book. And sonically I think it really captures the Vanguard. Not that i disown any of my former albums, this is very strong, but considering where I was three to four years ago, focused playing.

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Stormy Weather: The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazz Women

Limelight. Used book in Good Condition. This book delves into the history of the involvement of women in jazz. It covers how women participated in the music as well as in-depth interviews, and also includes a discography of recordings by female artists. For people who love jazz. Who get bleak when they think of what happened to Billie Holiday, this is their book.

Los angeles times Book Review Fred hersch- Open Book. Dahl boldy goes where no man or woman has gone before.


Live in Europe

Used book in Good Condition. Shrink-wrapped. Cd fred hersch- Open Book.


Uptown, Downtown

A connoisseur of the american Songbook, he has previously drawn material for albums dedicated to Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. Used book in Good Condition. In the world’s jazz capital of new york, Bill Charlap is considered one of the great players of songs for musicals and broadway shows that when detached from their source, become standards.

Shrink-wrapped. On uptown, downtown, charlap preserves this love of song while leading the trio he has performed with since 1997 including bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington Fred hersch- Open Book.


Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within, Book & CD

Effortless Mastery is a book that the world really needs. This book has become a favorite of many musicians who credit it with changing their lives! Many are so impressed that they buy copies for their musician friends as gifts. Used book in Good Condition. Kenny's remarkable work deals directly with these hindrances, and presents ways to let our natural creative powers flow freely with minimal stress and effort.

Includes an inspiring CD of meditations designed to initiate positive thought. It was not written by a philosopher or an academic. Easy, effortless reading paperback. Playing music should be as simple and natural as drawing a breath, yet most musicians are hindered by self-consciousness, self-doubt, apprehension, and stress.

Before we can truly express our inner self, we must first learn to be at peace and overcome the distractions that can make performance difficult. Kenny werner's effortless mastery from jamey Aebersold is a remarkable book that deals directly with hindrances to creativity, and presents ways to let your natural creative powers flow freely with minimal stress and effort.

It also shows how to practice effectively, promoting real growth and how to play and perform free from fear and self-judgment. Includes an inspiring CD of meditations designed to initiate positive thought. The joy of playing is liberation. Effortless mastery teaches the seeker how to achieve both at the highest levels.




Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original

Kenny werner's effortless mastery from jamey Aebersold is a remarkable book that deals directly with hindrances to creativity, and presents ways to let your natural creative powers flow freely with minimal stress and effort. It is a story that, like its subject, reflects the tidal ebbs and flows of American history in the twentieth century.

Fred hersch- Open Book. Now updated with an afterword for Monk’s 2017 centennial. Thelonious monk is the critically acclaimed, gripping saga of an artist’s struggle to “make it” without compromising his musical vision. Includes an inspiring CD of meditations designed to initiate positive thought. Playing music should be as simple and natural as drawing a breath, apprehension, yet most musicians are hindered by self-consciousness, self-doubt, and stress.

Before you can truly express our inner self, you must first learn to be at peace and overcome the distractions that can make performance difficult. His angular melodies and dissonant harmonies shook the jazz world to its foundations, ushering in the birth of “bebop” and establishing Monk as one of America’s greatest com­posers.

. Used book in Good Condition. To his fans, taciturn, eccentric, he was temperamental, he was the ultimate hipster; to his detractors, or childlike. The first full biography of legendary jazz musician Thelonious Monk, written by a brilliant historian, with full access to the family's archives and with dozens of interviews.




Freedom of Expression: Interviews With Women in Jazz

Free Press. Used book in Good Condition. Billy taylor said about the lack of awareness of female musicians: ‘If it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen. Now everyone will know that it did happen and continues to happen. Playing music should be as simple and natural as drawing a breath, self-doubt, apprehension, yet most musicians are hindered by self-consciousness, and stress.

Before you can truly express our inner self, you must first learn to be at peace and overcome the distractions that can make performance difficult. Liberating the Master Musician Within. What a great gift to the history of women and music. Judy chaikin, director of "The Girls in the Band. The interviewees: mindi abair - saxophones cheryl bentyne - voice jane ira bloom - soprano saxophone samantha boshnack - trumpet dee dee bridgewater - voice terri lyne carrington - drums sharel cassity - saxophones anat cohen - clarinet, saxophones jean cook - violin connie crothers - piano eliane elias - piano, clarinet iris ornig - double Bass Alisha Pattillo - Tenor Saxophone Roberta Piket - Piano Cheryl Pyle - Flute Nicole Rampersaud - Trumpet Sofia Rei - Voice Patrizia Scascitelli - Piano Diane Schuur - Voice Ellen Seeling - Trumpet Helen Sung - Piano Jacqui Sutton - Voice Mazz Swift - Violin, Percussion Jan Leder - Flute Jennifer Leitham - Double Bass Carmen Lundy - Voice Sherrie Maricle - Drums Jane Monheit - Voice Jacqui Naylor - Voice Aurora Nealand - Saxophones, Voice Ayelet Rose Gottlieb - Voice Lenae Harris- Cello Val Jeanty - Electronics, Voice Nioka Workman - Cello Pamela York - Piano Brandee Younger - Harp Malika Zarra - Voice Fred hersch- Open Book.

As Dr. At long last, an in-depth recognition of the female contributions to jazz. Women are shaking up the music industry while the general public is becoming much more aware of the contributions female musicians have made to jazz.