ju s t out ▼ m arch 2 1 , 1007 ▼ 31
F
red Hersch lives life through the music
he creates. He is a musician’s musician,
delving into introspective places that
few artists can, and having a vision that
transcends the boundaries of any one
musical genre to produce colorful and vibrant
movement. With 14 solo recordings and more
than 60 collaborative recordings to his credit, the
jazz pianist has won praise from his peers for his
innovative genius and prolific style. He has also
earned himself two Grammy nominations.
“Music is the focus for everything in my life.
It’s the thing that means the most to me,” says the
41-year-old composer/pianist. “As a pianist I’m
more in the jazz realm than anything else. But I
also play classical and work with various vocal
ists. I also pull from various other places like
R&B, Motown, The Beatles. I compose a fair
amount myself, in different idioms. Jazz piano is
just the hub of the wheel.”
Though he has been playing professionally for
nearly two decades, Hersch gained substantial
media attention two years ago when he disclosed
that he was HIV positive. “I’m a folder within a
folder. I’m a pianist who happens to be gay who
happens to be HIV positive—in that order,” he
says. “I decided that if I am going to be an artist
with any kind of integrity, I couldn’t waste energy
in any closet—gay or HIV. But I’ll always be a
musician before anything else.”
These days, Hersch is enjoying the success of
two recently released and critically acclaimed
recordings, the stellar Passion Flower: Fred
Hersch Plays Billy Strayhom and Fred Hersch
Plays Rodgers and Hammerstein, both on Atlan-
tic/Nonesuch Records.
A master technician, Hersch sparkles on both
sets, which he produced, arranged and orches
trated. Much of his impact stems from tonal
nuance, his gift for improvisation, and a unique
vision to unearth a totally original, poetic jazz
sound.
On Rodgers and Hammerstein, Hersch inter
prets 12 of the famed songwriting team’s classics
and makes them very much his own, with a jazzy
twist. From shows such as Oklahoma, South
Pacific, The King and l and Cinderella, Hersch
brings the songs back to life. Passion Flower,
which was released earlier last year, is one of
Hersch’s most powerful and passionate releases
to date—and one of the most satisfying jazz
releases of 1996. On the sterling opus the versatile
pianist interprets the work of Strayhom—a popu
lar 1950s jazz composer—with his impermeable
tonal palette of solo piano, trio and string orches
tra.
Strayhom and Hersch have a lot in common.
Both are pianists. Both compose and arrange their
own music. And both use strong classical influ
ences in the music they write and perform (Hersch
himself draws much of his lyrical approach from
P assionately F red
Pianist Fred Hersch may be the HIV “poster boy”
ofjazz—but for him the music comes first
T
by Jeffrey L. Newman
‘7 ’ra a pianist who
happens to be gay
who happens to be
HIV positive—in
that order. I
decided that if I am
going to be an
artist with any kind
o f integrity, I
couldn 7 waste
energy in any
closet—gay or HIV.
But III always be a
musician before
anything else. ”
—Fred Hersch
i
Bach and Ravel). Both men happen to be gay, too.
“A lot of people think that I chose to record the
works of Billy Strayhom because he was gay. But
I definitely did not. I chose him because he was
good,” he says. “He’s a composer that I thought I
could do something with on a personal level. His
music spoke to me in ways other composers’
never has.”
Bom and raised in Cincinnati, Hersch began
to get the music bug when he was just a tot.
Though his mom and dad were not musical by
trade, they always had music playing throughout
the house.
“I’d always improvise as a kid, but I didn’t
have a clue was jazz was— not until I got out of
high school,” he recalls. “Then I started going to
jazz clubs and began to learn to play through
improvisation.” He graduated with honors from
the New England Conservatory, and in 1977 he
packed his bags and moved to the Big Apple,
where he has remained ever since.
Hersch became established pretty quickly in
New York, playing with such jazz giants as Joe
Henderson and Stan Getz. He later collaborated
with Janis Siegel of The Manhattan Transfer and
soprano Dawn Upshaw. In 1985 he made his first
solo recording. Then in 1993 he earned his first
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solo Grammy nomination for his Dancing in the
Dark opus. Last year he earned his second Grammy
nomination for “best jazz instrumental perfor
mance” for Fred Hersch Plays Johnny Mandel.
But whether by his own design or not, his most
notable work has come in the form of the 1994
AIDS benefit album he produced. Entitled Last
Night When We Were Young, the jazz ballad
recording was created as a fund-raising effort for
Classical Action, Performing Arts Against AIDS.
It featured some of today’s top jazz performers,
including Gary Burton, Toots Thielemans and
Mark Murphy. The album has so far raised more
than $100,000. “I figured I couldn’t afford to
write huge checks,” he says, "but this was some
thing I could do to make a difference.”
Promoting the release also gave him a reason
to talk about being HIV positive, something he
had not previously discussed with the media. “I
felt that I had to be honest and tell people about my
own status and not hide behind any walls,” says
Hersch, who has been asymptomatic for more
than 10 years. “I didn’t want to feel like I was
being hypocritical or dishonest in any way. I
figured that if I was going to talk, now was the
time.”
The revelation landed him on numerous talk
shows, on the pages of dozens of magazines from
the Advocate to Newsweek, and propelled him
into the national spotlight as the only jazz musi
cian openly living with HI V. “1 was pretty shocked
by the media avalanche. For 22 years 1 lived
openly about my sexuality. But this was not about
being gay. It was about having HIV. Most of the
attention was great. The only exception was that I
felt like people were looking at me with this poster
child mentality. They didn’t want to talk about my
music, they wanted to talk about my being HIV
positive,” he says.
“Here I was promoting my music and every
one was focusing on me as a person with AIDS,”
he recalls. “I became a poster boy for the jazz
community. But it was a risk 1 was prepared to
take. Just like Bill T. Jones is the poster boy for the
dance world, F m this for my musical circle. Occa
sionally it’s exhausting. I only wish that people
would look beyond that now and focus in on my
music.”
Coming out hasn’t hurt Hersch professionally:
He’s playing more gigs than ever before, landed a
major record label deal with Atlantic/Nonesuch
Records and earned his second Grammy nomina
tion. But Hersch hopes people don’t buy his music
simply because he’s gay. He disagrees with the
notion that because an artist is gay or lesbian, the
gay community should automatically support that
artist. Talent, he says, should outweigh sexuality.
“Being gay is not particularly interesting, re
ally. I have a lot of problems about so-called ‘gay
music.’ A lot of it is just not that good,” he says.
“I don’t think that just because someone is an
openly gay artist, their music is inherently worthy
of support or extra support, unless they happen to
be a good artist.”
As for the likelihood of other mainstream
artists such as himself coming out of the closet,
Hersch isn’t overly optimistic. He doesn’t believe
the coming out of Melissa Etheridge and k.d. lang
will start a trend. “They’re all girls, that’s the
thing. No major male performer has come out of
the closet while they are hot,” he says. "There are
a lot of artists who are gay but are afraid to talk
about it. Instead, they become musically consti
pated. They worry about what everyone will think
about them. As a result they are not connecting
with the audience with who they are personally.
When you are an artist you have to take risks and
be prepared that not everyone will embrace it.”
In the meantime, the future continues to look
bright for Hersch. His next Nonesuch set is due in
the spring, and he also plans to pursue projects of
original music and collaborative projects with
other artists.
Along the way, Hersch hopes to maybe even
meet Mr. Right. “I’m single and not a toad,” he
jokes. “I’ve had extended boyfriends and lovers.
But it’s complicated by the HIV thing. If you’re
with someone who is HIV negative, they might
have to go through some unpleasant shit down the
road. And you have to be ultra, ultra careful. If
both are HIV positive, then you run the risk that
either of you could take a turn for the worse. Plus,
I’m 41. But I’m always hopeful. It would be nice
to meet someone special, but only if it was right.”
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