Pianist Fred Hersch is hard to pigeonhole. He’s as comfortable playing Cole Porter show tunes as he is Ornette Coleman’s harmolodic compositions. A lyrical, even romantic player, he’s also one of the most insightful interpreters of the stark, decidedly unromantic music of Thelonious Monk. The first set by his trio at the Regattabar a week ago Wednesday encompassed his own compositions, as well as standards and Monk, but its introspective tone contrasted with his more outgoing new CD, Live at the Village Vanguard (Palmetto).
Whenever he performs a work, you’ll hear Hersch reaching for something new. The opening "A Lark" suggested both meanings of the title entity. But Hersch also pushed it, and his keen harmonies accorded even the lighter moments a rich, dark weight. "At the Close of Day" has the kind of reflective, after-hours mood that’s Hersch’s forte. Both it and "Black Dog Pays a Visit" found him transforming profound sadness into something beautiful through the subtlety of his touch and the elegance of his lines. "Stuttering," with its irregular silences, short melodic fragments, and jerky rhythms, showed how deeply he’s absorbed Monk into his own voice. When he turned to familiar tunes, his adventurous spirit came through even more clearly. His solo introduction to "Evidence" started about as far from the tune as you could get but eventually worked its way back to Monk’s concise melodic scaffold for some of the night’s best playing.
Hersch’s long-time bassist, Drew Gress, played around the beat and chose notes that harmonically complemented Hersch’s lines. His solo on "At the Close of Day" was so lyrical, it sounded like a continuation of the composition. Drummer John Hollenbeck seemed new to these tunes, and he didn’t always find his way inside the music; at times his unfamiliarity with the dynamics of Hersch and Gress held them back. On Live at the Village Vanguard, drummer Nasheet Waits weaves his way into the music and drives the trio. That disc attests that, regardless of who he’s got backing him, Hersch remains impossible to typecast.