Fred Hersch was so
perfectly in command of everything he played at Kilbourn
Hall Tuesday night that you would hardly have noticed anything subversive going
on. But toward the end of his set I realized that I knew the ballad he was
playing very well, but at that moment I didn’t know it at all. The same thing
happened with the final song. It was a familiar tune by Thelonious Monk, my
favorite jazz composer, but I couldn’t place it.

So I asked him about the songs after the concert and it
turned out he was up to his old masterful tricks. The ballad was “The Song Is
You,” but it’s usually not a ballad; it’s an up-tempo tune. And that faster
Monk tune? It was “Let’s Cool One,” but Monk never played it that fast. Hersch is a great re-inventor of songs.

Earlier in the set he’d paid tribute to Monk in another way,
playing “Dream of Monk,” his own composition that had such an uncanny
resemblance, it could easily pass for a newly discovered Monk tune.

Hersch’s trio, with John Hebert on
bass and Eric McPherson on drums, was as tight a unit as you’ll find anywhere.
McPherson was especially subtle on the drums, an important factor when playing Kilbourn Hall.

Hersch will be playing a solo
show on Wednesday, June 24, 4 p.m., at the Lyric Theatre, 440 East
Avenue.

I headed over to the Lutheran Church where I heard a fine set
by Julia Hulsmann and her excellent
trio: Marc Muellbauer on double bass and
Heinrich Köbberling, drums. Hulsmann is a deliberate pianist who carves out melodies in
her solos; no frills for her. She also honored Thelonious Monk with one of her
finest tunes of the night, “Who’s Next.”

She played one song from her latest album exploring the music
of Kurt Weill. The older folks in the audience may have remembered “Alabama
Song” from the first album by The Doors. Hulsmann’s
rendition wasn’t as raunchy, but it had its own quirks, including a verse
played like a music box cranked a little bit too slowly.

But perhaps her most evocative song was one that she
explained was inspired by flower-filled roundabouts. As a child, on a vacation
trip to France, she said, she found herself fascinated by them. The song’s
chorus featured a circular theme. Between choruses she would go on melodic
excursions but eventually come to another roundabout, another chorus.

Earlier in the evening I caught most of the set by yet
another brilliant pianist, George Colligan,
at Hatch Hall. Colligan, who studied trumpet at
Peabody Conservatory and serves as a drummer on several albums, is now known
for his keyboard prowess.

Before the concert he told me the trumpet was just too hard
so he switched to piano and is largely self-taught. Let’s just say he’s quite a
teacher. Colligan played a dazzling set consisting of
a 15-minute medley of Billy Strayhorn tunes, another 15 minutes of Kenny
Wheeler tunes, and then finally some of his own.

Wednesday night, I’m looking forward to catching a great
drummer and his group, Antonio Sanchez & Migration, at Kilbourn
Hall. Then I’ll head over to Hatch Hall to hear Aaron Diehl, the pianist who
was so impressive playing with Cecile McLorin Salvant. And I’ll also catch the British group, Troyka, at Christ Church.

This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2015.

2 replies on “Jazz Fest 2015, Day 5: Ron reviews Fred Hersch, Julia Hulsmann, and George Colligan”

  1. My take on jazz is usually almost identical to Ron Netsky’s, which is why I was so disappointed he didn’t review the Moutin Factory Quintet at Montage last night. He obviously can’t be everywhere, but this group by my lights was easily the very best so far in the entire Festival. They are a cutting-edge hard bop group from France led by their bassist, Francois Moutin, who is the equal of Christian McBride or any other top-level bass player one can name. His duet with his twin brother Louis on drums of an Ornette Coleman tune was, in my view, comparable to Anat Cohen’s rendition of La Vie En Rose at last year’s festival, and there can be no praise higher than that. Why isn’t this group better known? After all, they routinely play before audiences of 4,000 to 5,000 people in Europe, where they are incredibly popular among jazz fans. The answer I suspect is American provinciality and the width of that barrier known as the Atlantic Ocean. The audience at the late set at Montage last night not only kept gasping in astonishment at the incredible things they repeatedly did, but also gave them a double standing ovation — once when they finished playing, and again when they were making their way off the stage. They really need to come back and play Kilbourn, where they belong, and Ron really needs to get to them when they do. I am sure he would go bonkers over them.

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