| Alive at the Village Vanguard | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | 6 January 2023 | |||
| Recorded | 19–21 October 2018 | |||
| Venue | Village Vanguard, NYC | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 67:30 | |||
| Label | Palmetto | |||
| Producer | Fred Hersch, Esperanza Spalding | |||
| Esperanza Spalding chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| Jazzwise |  [2] |
Alive at the Village Vanguard is a collaborative live album by pianist Fred Hersch and jazz singer Esperanza Spalding. [3] [4] Palmetto Records released the album on 6 January 2023. [5]
The album marks Hersch's sixth release recorded in the storied venue. He explained, "This recording sounds like you’re in the best seat in the Vanguard for a very live experience. You can really feel the vitality of the room, of the audience, and of our interplay. We decided on the word Alive for the album title as you can really feel the intimacy and energy of the performances." [6] Spalding does not play a bass here, performing vocal parts only. [7]
Matt Collar of AllMusic wrote, "Alive at the Village Vanguard captures pianist Fred Hersch and vocalist Esperanza Spalding in an intimate yet inventively expressive duo performance. On first glance, the combination of Hersch (a veteran performer known for his lyrical standards work) and Spalding (a virtuoso bassist and singer known for her highly conceptual, genre-bending albums) may seem like an odd pairing." [1] A reviewer of Jazz Trail commented, "Without major arrangements, this piano-voice duo recording captured live at New York's Village Vanguard, shows off the many musical qualities of Fred Hersch and Esperanza Spalding. The pair imbues most of the tunes with a quirky perspective and humor, but I felt this work more as an audience entertainment rather than an audio recording to be revisited." [8]
Jeff Tamarkin writing for Relix added, "Eight numbers, most of them standards from one era or another, were recorded up close and personal, sans any embellishment, albeit with audience sounds left intact as nature intended." [9] Jon W. Poses of Chicago Daily Tribune commented, "There are a lot of things that really make listening to and absorbing the compressed session wonderful, but what stands out to me is the overall whimsical, fanciful aesthetic — it’s omnipresent. These two are really at ease with each other’s musical quirks, twists and turns." [10]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "But Not for Me" | George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin | 9:32 |
| 2. | "Dream of Monk" | Fred Hersch | 7:36 |
| 3. | "Little Suede Shoes" | Charlie Parker | 9:03 |
| 4. | "Girl Talk" | Bobby Troup, Neal Hefti | 12:03 |
| 5. | "Evidence" | Thelonious Monk | 6:35 |
| 6. | "Some Other Time" | Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn | 8:29 |
| 7. | "Loro" | Egberto Gismonti | 9:37 |
| 8. | "A Wish" | Fred Hersch, Norma Winstone | 4:35 |
| Total length: | 1:07:30 | ||
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