Alive at the Village Vanguard is a collaborative live album by pianist Fred Hersch and jazz singer Esperanza Spalding. Palmetto Records released the album on 6 January 2023.
Background 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." Hersch rarely performs alongside vocalists, and his joint appearances with Esperanza Spalding have remained few and far between since their initial collaboration in 2013. Spalding does not play a bass here, performing vocal parts only.
In their interview for DownBeat, both artists underlined that their partnership feels especially natural because they treat improvisation as a kind of composition and see jazz as a broad, living language rather than a narrow style.
Reception 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." 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."
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." 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."
The album received two Grammy award nominations: Best Jazz Performance (for "But Not For Me") and Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Track listing
Personnel Band Fred Hersch – piano, producing Esperanza Spalding – voices, producing
Production Douglas Heusser – design Erika Kapin – photography Missi Callazzo – executive producer Geoff Countryman – assistant engineer James Farber – engineer Tyler McDiarmid – assistant engineer, mixing Nate Wood – mastering
References