The Surrounding Green is pianist Fred Hersch’s latest and third release on the ECM label. There seems to be no stopping the flow of creation and collaboration from Hersch as he approaches the end of his seventh decade. In the last three years there’s been his first ECM release which was a duo with Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava, a grammy nominated duo release with Esperanza Spalding and another ECM album, this time solo. Somehow though, it’s the trio that is the quintessential setting for Hersch, and with The Surrounding Green, we get a trio set recorded in the favoured ECM space, Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo, with decades long Hersch partners Drew Gress on bass and Joey Baron on drums.
Amongst the dozen or so trio recordings Hersch has released are a good handful of live recordings, capturing the thrill of invention in the moment. The Surrounding Green may be a studio recording, but the freedom and expansiveness with which the trio play this set of pieces from all points of the jazz compass, has the feel of a live performance, the imagined audience stilled to pin-drop silence by what is unfolding.
Plainsong, a Hersch composition, begins with a swoop of arpeggios and then the most poignant of melody lines, subtly steered into an edgy astringency by an unexpected harmonic shift. The trio seem to breath together rather than play time, the pulse ebbing and flowing, Gress and Baron weaving and decorating as Hersch develops and expands the theme with thickening intensity. A sizzle of cymbals and an urgent pulse then push them into Ornette Coleman’s Law Years. It’s a scintillating take with a swinging, driving momentum emerging from drums and bass, Hersch spinning line after line, at times one hand answering the other at others hands locked together, and then sometimes contrasting ideas bouncing around.
The title track, another Hersch piece, opens with rich chords and evocative melody, tinged with folky whispers. Egberto Gismonti’s Palhaço continues the folky theme, an affecting, lyrical solo from Gress gives way to a flowing solo from Hersch as the piece takes on a dancing quality. Embraceable You gets a makeover with a nod to Ahmad Jamal’s sense of groove and space. First Song, a Charlie Haden piece, is another meditative exploration, Gress digging deep, unaccompanied for an extended introduction from the bass. They play out with a joyful spring in the step on Hersch’s own Anticipation.
Hersch has conditioned us to expect something special with his recorded output and this album does not disappoint, the quiet dynamism, introspection and joy that’s communicated is uplifting. It’s a trio at the top of their game.
Mike Collins is a pianist and writer based in Bristol, who runs the jazzyblogman site .
Release date today, 27 June 2025. Recorded in Auditorio Stelio Molo, Lugano in May 2024. Produced by Manfred Eicher.
