I just came from a solo performance he gave at a local restaurant/cafe. La Note is on Shattuck, Berkeley's business street, and part of a burgeoning row of jazz clubs, which includes Jupiter's, Beanbender's, Mr E.'s (Pete Escovedo's place)--all within 3 blocks of each other. La Note features jazz performances (usually Bay Area musicians) every Sunday afternoon. It is adjacent to and affiliated with The Jazz School.

The place holds about 55 people, but on this occasion there were about 75 people in the place. When I called today, I was informed that show was completely sold out. However, the term "completely sold" out is usually a relative term when applied to a (small) jazz venue. Usually it means "sold out unless more paying customers show up".

I showed up at about 4:45 and caught the last two songs of the first set from a perfect vantage point outside the store front window and to the left of Hersch. The final number of the first set was a consummate rendition of Monk's Crepuscle with Nellie. At the intermission, they let me and a few other folks in for the second set. They charged us only $6 each ($12 for the entire show). The audience was largely middle aged and white. It was one of those increasingly rare occasions where I was one of the younger folks in attendance.

The second set opened with a Hoagy Carmichael ballad followed by a Benny Golson tune (name escapes me) that found Hersch playing in an uncharacteristically hard boppish fashion. My tastes in pianists tend to run to hard swinging percussive players like Don Pullen and D.D. Jackson. Hersch's style is close to the antithesis of that. He is more of a sensitive, impressionistic player not unlike Bill Evans. Yet, I enjoyed this concert immensely--about as much as any solo piano performance I have ever seen. He is a remarkably expressive and emotional player who interprets a song with minimal embellishment or adornment. The melodies are the focal point of his playing, rather than merely serving as vehicles for his considerable improvisational talents. (Not knowing his recordings too well, I shouldn't really generalize beyond this performance). Most of the 7 or 8 tunes he played in the 50 minute set lasted no more than 5 minutes. I didn't take either written or mental notes, so my recollections of the songs are rather sketchy. Aside from the Carmichael and Golson pieces he opened with, he also played a Gershwin ballad, In Walked Bud, two of his own compositions, Saribande (sp) and Contraband--which were among the highlights of the set. He was very enthusiastically and warmly received by the audience and responded in kind.

I really enjoyed the performance and look forward to catching him again in he not too distant future.