Notes and tones: Hersch, spalding come 'Alive' on upcoming record

Fred Hersch and esperanza spalding's “Alive at the Village Vanguard” (Palmetto) is just a whole lot of fun. When I think of pianist Fred Hersch, among the initial descriptions that come to mind are “serious” and “intense,” along with “reflective,” “abstract” and “introspective.”

I’m not alone in thinking that. In the press release for this live — or “Alive” as they call it — recording, esperanza spalding, Hersch’s partner in crime here (and whose name is spelled lowercase), notes, “[Fred] takes his devotion to the music as seriously as life and death.”

However, spalding follows up that sentiment with “... But once we start playing, it’s just fun.”

After listening to this collection of pieces — comprised predominately of well-known standards — that would be an apt characterization for this duo. spalding, known for her technical bass-playing prowess, comes across throughout “Alive at the Village Vanguard” as enjoying herself immensely. Same with her cohort.

This delightfully spontaneous sounding session oozes with a kind of intimate nightclub feel. At times, one almost feels it could be misinterpreted as a bit on the “cocktail-y” side. Not to be misunderstood here, because I’ve been to the Village Vanguard on scores of occasions — but if I wasn’t familiar with the physical space and the musicians, and I shut my eyes, I can almost visualize Hersch sitting at a sunken piano that doubles as a bar, glasses resting on it. With a tip jar, of course. Spalding would be wearing a full-length gown or some such garb.

Of course, with a pair — and specifically this particular pair — of superb musicians, what’s going on is 180 degrees from any such a setting. There is nothing short of tremendous interplay between Hersch and spalding throughout this eight-song selection, which the musicians hand-picked to be included on the January 2023 release.

The recording’s content was derived during the course of a three-day stint at the famed Greenwich Village basement club, captured way before the pandemic, between Oct. 19-21, 2018.

There are a lot of things that really make listening to and absorbing the compressed session wonderful, but what stands out to me is the overall whimsical, fanciful aesthetic — it’s omnipresent. These two are really at ease with each other’s musical quirks, twists and turns.

The music is so seamless that one suspects there might have been a whole lot of rehearsing. But then again, a number of the tunes — “Loro,” for instance, composed by Brazilian guitarist Egberto Gismonti — ends in an intuitive manner. Not stopping on a dime, so to speak, but the abruptness results in the audience hesitating in its applause, as if they weren’t quite sure the piece was over. It really doesn’t matter. It’s not a flaw; rather it helps solidify the atmosphere.

Throughout “Alive,” it becomes evident that not only are the musicians having fun, but the audience is too. Take the intro to the duo’s take on Neal Hefti’s/Bobby Troup’s bluesy, and, uh, lyrically dated “Girl Talk.”

Hersch opens with a kind of stop-and-go stride intro; spalding — perhaps taking girl talk literally — starts recalling, seemingly off the cuff, how the song reminds her of a scene in one of the “Mission Impossible” films. The delivery resembles a spoken word outlet, even reminiscent of a theatrical production.

Hersch plays softly, and remains deep in the background while spalding holds court center stage. The audience feels her humor and sarcasm as she interacts with them, again Hersch playing at a lower level throughout. It’s a great moment.

During the course of “Alive,” spalding’s sprawling, expansive interpretations of lyrics run the gamut from her simply talking, almost off-handedly, as if the piano is subservient to her humorous storytelling, to scat singing and faithfully interpreting titles.

Hersch, meanwhile, is all over the piano, top-to-bottom, inside-and-out — literally as he plucks strings at one point.

The material and approach, likewise, allows Hersch to take a similar, if not parallel approach to his instrument. Sometimes, it’s pure improvisation from him, seemingly hitting the keys randomly at different points and passages — as well as interpreting standards in his own way — to delivering his original “Dream of Monk” along with Monk’s own “Evidence” All the while, spalding augments the music with voicings of one kind or another.

I’m not sure where “Alive” will fall, historically speaking; however the disc is decidedly engaging. There are numerous times when the two musicians alternate taking the lead in passages, one following the other. What’s equally pleasing about this release is that the two artists give each other plenty of space to solo unaccompanied, but also create a shared groove that I’m sure they both love.

Jon W. Poses is executive director of the “We Always Swing” Jazz Series. Reach him at jazznbsbl@socket.net.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Hersch, spalding come 'Alive' on upcoming record