Pianist, composer, educator, and author Fred Hersch brings his trio, with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Jochen Ruekert, to the Outpost in Albuquerque on September 16, Unit B in Santa Fe on September 17, and the Harwood Museum in Taos on September 18—part of the New Mexico Jazz Festival. Over the last four decades or so, Hersch has established himself as an original and respected voice in modern jazz, releasing more than 60 albums and winning multiple accolades in the United States and Europe. He has played a wide range of musical styles in an equally wide range of formats, from solo piano to large-scale orchestras. One of the first—if not the first—jazz artists to step out of the closet, Hersch has helped open doors for others, particularly through his memoir, Good Things Happen Slowly, a frank account of his health struggles and triumphs as an openly gay, HIV-positive jazz musician. Near death in 2008, he was placed in a medically induced coma for several weeks, during which he experienced an unusually realistic series of dreams, which he recounted in one of his signal projects, My Coma Dreams, a moving multimedia jazz theater piece.

He graciously offered to speak to Musically Speaking in advance of his New Mexico Jazz Festival performances. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.