Fifteen-time Grammy nominee jazz pianist and composer Fred Hersch and multiple Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist esperanza spalding present an evening of songs from the Great American Songbook, music from Brazil, and jazz compositions—including several penned by Hersch—in celebration of the release of their album Alive at the Village Vanguard. The remarkable chemistry of their partnership is deep, truly exhilarating and not to be missed.
esperanza spalding
esperanza spalding (also known as irma negundo or i.e.) is a being who has grown to recognize love in the abstract and aspirational, and is now fully dedicated to learning how she can serve and embody actualized love through honor for—and receptivity to—fellow humans, teachers, and practitioners of various regenerative arts.
Bass, piano, composition, performance, voice, and lyrics are tools and disciplines she is engaged in deeply to cultivate her own channel for transmitting care and beauty through vibration/sound/presence.
spalding is currently developing a mockumentary in collaboration with brontë velez and San Francisco Symphony; researching and developing liberation rituals in jazz and black dance; and continuing a lifelong collaboration with practitioners in various fields relating to music, healing, and cognition to develop music with enhanced therapeutic potential.
spalding is presently paid by Harvard University to co-create and learn with students enrolled there, working on developing creative practices that serve the restoration of people and land.
Fred Hersch
A select member of jazz’s piano pantheon, Fred Hersch is a pervasively influential creative force who has shaped the music’s course over more than three decades as an improviser, composer, educator, bandleader, collaborator, and recording artist. With some 50 albums to his credit as a leader or co-leader, he’s a 15-time Grammy Award nominee who continues to earn jazz’s most prestigious awards, including distinctions as a 2016 Doris Duke Artist and being named Jazz Pianist of the Year three times from the Jazz Journalists Association. Proclaimed “a living legend” by The New Yorker, Hersch has long defined jazz’s creative edge in a wide variety of settings, from his breathtaking solo recitals and exploratory duos to his extraordinary trios and innovative chamber settings. As a composer, he is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. His recent releases, Live In Europe with his celebrated trio, and the 2020 solo disc Songs From Home are definitive statements. His acclaimed memoir Good Things Happen Slowly is now available from Crown Archetype Books.
