Fred Hersch

Fred Hersch (Cincinnati, October 21, 1955) is an American jazz pianist. In addition to playing in bands, he also performs as a solo artist. He was the first artist allowed to perform solo at Village Vanguard in New York with a weekly contract.

Between 1984 and 1990, he was the regular pianist for Toots Thielemans.
In 1993, he announced that he had been HIV-positive since 1984.
In 2008, he went into a coma for two months and released the theatrical production My coma dreams in 2008.
In 2017, he published his autobiography Good things happen slowly.
His album Live In Europe (2018) with the Fred Hersch Trio was recorded in the legendary Flagey Studio 4 in Brussels.
In 2019, the first big band album was released under the name Begin again.

Hersch has already received several indirect Grammy nominations because he played on nominated albums. Among others in Art Farmer's A Work of Art (1983), two albums by Eddie Daniels (1986, 1987), with Janis Siegel (vocal performance in 1989) and with Johnny Mathis album (Best Traditional Pop Performance, 1991), with Luciana Souza (Best Jazz Vocal Album) and with Nancy King Live at Jazz Standard (Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2006).