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FRED HERSCH: FINDING INSPIRATION

By Ken Dryden

Fred Hersch’s contributions as a pianist, composer, bandleader and sideman have made him one of the top musicians of his generation. The Cincinnati native was drawn to jazz in his youth and benefited from the mentoring of local musicians who challenged him. Fred needed to expand his horizons, so he drove to Boston to track down Jaki Byard at the New England Conservatory for a spontaneous audition, which Jaki granted and told him immediately afterward that he was accepted. Fred worked with many remarkable teachers there, including Joe Maneri, Jimmy Giuffre and George Russell. Fred recalls, “After graduation in June 1977, I was living in the Village. I wanted to play with the best players in the world, and felt that I had the tools and wanted to be challenged. I was mentored by bassist Sam Jones; from him, I learned about swing in a deep way. Playing with him was a lot of cred, because people respected him.

Through Sam I got to Art Farmer, through Art I got to Joe Henderson, then I was with Stan Getz for a brief stint. I played gigs with Charlie Haden, Buster Williams, Al Foster, Billy Hart. The skill set for a young jazz pianist moving to New York in 1977 was to have good time, be able to swing, know the tunes, be able to comp. Sight-reading was a plus, but you weren’t expected to compose all your own original music. NEC was a jazz department then, not yet a jazz program. Even though I benefited, I don’t feel that I’m a part of the jazz education era. Back then, you could hang out at the bar with all the great musicians. It was a very open scene. Even though I was playing great gigs with those people, I was still playing parties, in the Catskills, in restaurants, paying dues and I made my first album at the age of thirty. You had to have a record label then, someone willing to back you to do it. I’ve been able to release one or two albums a year over the past 38 years.”

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Antoinette Montague: The Jazz Royalty Reviving Newark’s Musical Legacy
by Raul da Gama

Antoinette Montague is a name that resonates with the heritage of jazz and blues royalty, tracing its lineage back to iconic figures like Ma Rainey, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. As the youngest of seven children in a musically inclined household, Antoinette's passion for jazz runs deep, making her a prominent force in the jazz scene of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. When the glorious and stately Antoinette Montague begins to sing, you will always discern that blues as the root begets jazz as its fruit. In fact, she will remind you many times in a conversation about her music, “Blues is the root, jazz is the fruit, baby!” She is not, of course, the lone voice in the metropolitan desert to repeat this truism.

Naysayers and refuseniks beware, because Antoinette is about to change all that. If you haven’t heard of her, shame on you, because Antoinette is descended from blues and jazz royalty that goes back to Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Ella, Sarah Vaughan and all the royal women of blues and jazz. The youngest of seven children born into a musical household, and “longtime activist of jazz-imbued New Jersey-New York-Connecticut, Antoinette Montague is a force to reckon with,” says Susan Brink, Jazz Journalists of America board member. 

To read more, visit https://mags.hothousejazzmagazine.com/a76282af89.html#page/6.