Fred Hersch is a busy musician. When he’s not producing Grammy-caliber albums, he’s performing at successful benefit concerts, teaching music students or collaborating with other artists.
The Grammy nominee played at the Manship Theater in downtown Baton Rouge on Wednesday night for the Smash Hits HIV/AIDS Community Fund and will teach and work with University jazz majors in a master class today. The fund will help provide program grants to HIV and AIDS nonprofit organizations in the Greater Baton Rogue area.
An AIDS survivor and activist, Hersch produced and played in four benefit albums and also performs at multiple fund raising events for relevant issues, including AIDS, according to his website. But Hersch said he prefers to help with events that seem like they will be successful.
“I try only to play at benefit concerts that are well-organized,” Hersch said. “I can’t write a big check, but I can donate my time.”
Derek Gordon, CEO of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, explained this event sought to bring a world-class musician to Baton Rouge and remind people that AIDS survivors can continue to live and achieve great things.
Hersch is currently touring between Lafayette, Baton Rouge and New Orleans as part of a trio, performing shows and holding other events. Despite the physical strain of traveling on trains and airplanes, Hersch said he enjoys performing jazz.
“I enjoy playing with other people. I enjoy the spontaneity of it,” Hersch said.
Hersch enjoys jazz music largely for its improvisational nature. Performing with others can be more rewarding than practicing alone as a concert pianist, he said.
“Jazz is a nice language for people that don’t even know each other,” Hersch said. “I like the social aspect.”
Hersch’s solo CD “Alone at the Vanguard” was nominated for two 2012 Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Album and Best Jazz Solo. The album consists of the last of 12 shows performed at the Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City. Hersch was also the first pianist to play solo in the Vanguard, he said.
The last show exhibited the best quality on all fronts, Hersch explained.
“I kept coming back to this final set,” he said. “The programming was really nice, the audience was really great and focused; I was in a good zone, the set had a really nice momentum to it.”
Gordon, who previously served as the president and CEO of jazz at the Kennedy Center for Creative Arts in Washington, D.C., said he’s seen Hersch play all over the country and considers him a brilliant composer of both jazz and opera. Gordon has seen him “perform like a lion” even as Hersch was suffering from AIDS-related problems.
“He’s a musician’s musician,” Gordon said. “His repertoire is vast and diverse.”
Hersch plans to release another album recorded in the Village Vanguard jazz club with his trio in September. He also plans to work with Italian clarinetist Nico Gori on a March duo project.
“I don’t sit around too much,” Hersch said. “I’m always kind of on to the next thing.”
 
 
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Contact Austen Krantz at [email protected]