Fred Hersch

The highlight of the summer so far has to be seeing Fred Hersch play at the Vancouver Jazz Festival. We expected to see Hersch play last year at the 92nd Street Y, but he was ill and cancelled that appearance.

On a fantastic five-day trip to the Pacific Northwest, we ventured across the border for one amazing evening. Neither Maria nor I had ever been to Vancouver. After a few days in Seattle, we were surprised at how dense the city was. Traffic was chaotic, but we managed to find our hotel, L'Hermitage, which was fabulous--and, as we later discovered, is on the same block as the concert venue! We wandered around the central downtown area, did some shopping, and discovered Blenz Coffee. After a superlative al fresco dinner at Cin Cin, we returned to the Centre for the Performing Arts for the concert. Hersch and the rest of his trio opened the show. His playing is so remarkably, melodically beautiful I just started weeping like a little girl. I was so overcome that I don't remember details of the show as I normally would. Maria and I agreed it was absolutely worth travelling many hundreds of miles to hear him play, and we will probably do it again.

Also on the bill was Kenny Werner, with a fantastic group including Randy Brecker and Antonio Sanchez. And they were great, but I couldn't enjoy them as well because I was so emotionally spent after seeing Hersch play. I will make a point to go hear Werner again sometime.