Fred Hersch & Wdr Big Band - Begin Again (2019)

When the conversation turns to contemporary jazz pianists, the name of Fred Hersch is apt to be left out. Not because he’s unknown – far from it – but because his constant, undemonstrative presence is too often taken for granted. His best work has been as a soloist or with his piano trio, performing his own shapely, lyrical compositions. He is also a much-praised accompanist to singers. If all this seems a little bland, I suggest you listen to a track here, entitled Out Someplace, subtitled Blues for Matthew Shepard, in memory of a gay man murdered in Wyoming in 1998. A more angry and disturbing piece it’s difficult to imagine, made positively terrifying by the orchestration of Vince Mendoza.

Indeed all nine of Hersch’s compositions here, some already well known, gain in colour from Mendoza’s arrangements, not to mention the playing of the Cologne-based WDR band. The sheer brilliance of some European radio bands ensures a regular flow of top US musicians, eager to make use of their talents. The same was true of our own BBC Big Band, but things seem to have gone suspiciously quiet there lately.