I had been hesitant to review these two albums—Live in Europe from the Fred Hersch Trio and Eric & Will from Eric Vloeimans and Will Holshouser—because both Hersch and Vloeimans have been featured on this site numerous times in recent months. However, after giving both a close listen, I think it would be a disservice to you, gentle reader, not to alert you to these remarkable recordings.
Eric Vloeimans and Will Holshouser
Eric & Will (online, digital-only indie)
A review
Both Dutch composer/trumpeter Eric Vloeimans and American composer/accordionist Will
Holshouser have found their ways onto this site more than once, but never together, which is a proposition that I suggested to Holshouser several years ago. I thought he would match up nicely with Vloeimans. As it happened, he had just met the Dutchman, and Eric & Will is the result of that meeting. Both of these gentlemen favor melody, lyricism, and close listening to their collaborators. All of these elements are present in spades on the album, which features four originals from Vloeimans (three of which we’ve encountered on previous albums), three from Holshouser, and a cover of Prince’s “Slow Love.” I’ve gushed over Vloeimans’ playing enough. I’ll just say that his expressive, astonishingly nuanced playing is present and accounted for here, so if you have not made his acquaintance, this is as good a place as any to start. Holshouser does indeed match up very nicely with him. In Holshouser’s hands, the accordion functions almost like a portable B3. He draws a wide range of timbres from the instrument, and at times, because he gets so much sound and rhythm simultaneously, you might think he’s been double-tracked, but he hasn’t been. His astonishing “breath control”—the measured impulses of air that he pushes over the reeds—further expands his nuanced expressiveness. His three compositions all include long melodic lines that unspool happily into unexpected places. “Soddy Daisy,” which combines a pint of Irish folk with a Piedmont chaser, garnished with a whiff of funk, marks one of the album’s high points. You can put this recording on while you’re cooking up dinner or as background music for your cocktail hour, but the closer you listen, the richer will be your reward.
Fred Hersch Trio
Live in Europe (Palmetto Records)
A review
Pianist/composer Fred Hersch has earned high marks here for his intelligent, expressive, and technically impeccable performances. He does not disappoint on Live in Europe, which was recorded in concert at Brussels’ former National Institute for Radio Broadcasting last November. Hersch was taken with the piano and the trio’s performance that night and learned only later that a recording had been made. Lucky for us because it presents this remarkable trio in top form. While Hersch is clearly the first among peers in the piano trio, its other two members—John Hébert on bass and Eric McPherson on drums—have an equivalent standing when it comes to injecting ideas into the group’s ongoing conversations. All three of these guys have big ears and the willingness to subordinate their ego to the music’s demands. The selections cover a wide range of territory, with six Hersch originals and two tunes each from Thelonious Monk and Wayne Shorter. I’ve remarked more than once on the independence of Hersch’s hands, but on this recording, it’s clear that we must extend that independence to his digits, which are able not only to sound multiple distinct voices in, say, a counterpoint passage, but also to focus your attention on an individual voice layered right in the middle of things. Check this out on his “Bristol Fog” and on the abstract impressionistic take on New Orleans piano in his “The Big Easy.” Hersch has established a voice of his own by marrying the funk and plunk of Monk with a nimble and lyrical rectitude that comes out of his classical background. No one sounds like him. You can say that about Hébert and McPherson, too. Hébert always finds his way to the lyrical: check out his solo on “Bristol Fog.” (One of my favorite moments on the album comes 45 seconds into the first track, Monk’s “We See,” when Hébert lays a perfectly placed bomb of a note into open space.) McPherson brings a hefty dose of playfulness to the mix and an irresistible propulsion, as on Hersch’s “Newklypso,” an homage to Sonny Rollins. The music enters rapturous territory toward the end of the concert as the trio unfurls all their sails for luminous readings of Shorter’s “Miyako” and “Black Nile.” Hersch closes the evening with a solo meditation on Monk’s “Blue Monk,” which offers some breathtaking counterpoint and an inspired ending.
© 2018 Mel Minter