Free Flying Explained

Free Flying
Type:Live album
Artist:Fred Hersch and Julian Lage
Cover:Free Flying (album).jpg
Recorded:February 2013
Venue:Jazz at Kitano, NYC
Genre:Jazz
Label:Palmetto
PM2168
Producer:Fred Hersch, Julian Lage
Chronology:Fred Hersch
Prev Title:Fun House
Prev Year:2013
Next Title:Floating
Next Year:2014

Free Flying is live album by pianist Fred Hersch and guitarist Julian Lage which was recorded in New York in 2013 and released by the Palmetto label.[1]

Reception

The AllMusic review by Thom Jurek said "It's quite rare when a jazz duet album between two complementary instruments is so intuitive it often sounds like the work of one player with multiple voices. Such is the case on Free Flying".

On All About Jazz, Victor L. Schermer stated "Hersch and Lage mesh superbly and have put together a coherent and listenable set of sophisticated improvisations which fuse baroque counterpoint, punctuated rhythms, and diverse jazz motifs in a disciplined yet exciting way. Simply by virtue of the close coordination of piano and guitar and tightness of performance, the album points up the continuity of music from Bach to bop to modernity, and in this respect represents something of a measuring rod for the development of jazz forms".[2]

In JazzTimes Bill Beuttler wrote "Pianist Fred Hersch and guitarist Julian Lage are similarly masterful players and likeminded souls. Though primarily jazz improvisers, they share affinities for new collaborations, classical forms and soft yet intense dynamics. If they’re more than a generation apart in age, no matter ... Their extraordinary new live recording, Free Flying, stems from a chance meeting in a coffee shop in Boston, a city in which both men have studied and taught. Private sessions led to their performing as a duo this past February at New York City’s Jazz at Kitano, where the program included seven Hersch compositions, most recorded at least once previously and five dedicated to artists he holds dear".[3]

Track listing

All compositions by Fred Hersch except where noted.

  1. "Song Without Words #4: Duet" – 6:54
  2. "Down Home" – 5:53
  3. "Heartland" – 4:57
  4. "Free Flying" – 5:04
  5. "Beatrice" (Sam Rivers) – 5:29
  6. "Song Without Words #3: Tango" – 5:45
  7. "Stealthiness" – 5:16
  8. "Gravity's Pull" – 7:03
  9. "Monk's Dream" (Thelonious Monk) – 6:24

Personnel

Musicians

Notes and References

  1. http://fredhersch.com/discography/free-flying/ Fred Hersch discography
  2. Schermer, V. L. All About Jazz Review, accessed May 2, 2019
  3. Beuttler, B. JazzTimes Review, accessed May 2, 2019