FRED HERSCH
Leaves of Grass Palmetto *****

Jazz and poetry have enough in common, in the evocation of atmosphere, mood and emotion, for them to come together more than they do. But if the relationship is sometimes strained, the union of Fred Hersch's music with the great poet Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass sequence is a marriage of true minds with few, if any, impediments. In a moving and beautiful response to Whitman's words, Hersch has created what is, in effect, a recital of linked lieder - his own comparison is with the classical form of a small-scale oratorio.

Using a 10-piece ensemble of singers Kurt Elling and Kate McGarry, and an instrumental spread of trumpet/flugelhorn, trombone, clarinet/bass clarinet/alto, tenor, cello, bass, drums, and himself on piano, Hersch has composed something fresh, varied, constantly imaginative, and engaging. It's not just that the melodies are beautiful; their contours and the orchestrations illuminate the words with an appreciation of key phrases and their natural rhythms, and of the overall sense of the pieces chosen. They're totally at the service of the poems, with the jazz elements apposite and sympathetic.

Most of the vocal load falls on Elling; though the few spoken parts are no more than acceptably done, his singing - and McGarry's - is compelling. Whitman's most famous poems, such as When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, are not here, but the poet is evoked and celebrated as a deeply spiritual, sensual and inclusive writer and thinker. Marvellous. www.palmetto-records.com

Ray Comiskey