Prior to reading this book, I was only vaguely aware of
Fred Hersch and his accomplishments, and then, mainly only his work as a record
producer. To find out that he is an accomplished pianist, composer, advocate of
various causes, coma survivor, and now a writer, was a real revelation. Early
in his career, he played with a lot of jazz luminaries who unlike Mr. Hersch,
were late in their careers. Those nostalgic kinds of stories about late jazz
legends are always enjoyable, especially for the perspective they give about
bygone jazz eras. I was also interested to learn that he is a fellow Ohioan who
is close to my age. So even though I do not share his sexual orientation, which
drives a number of his storylines – and obviously, portions of his life – I
found his tales highly relatable and not entirely without correlation in my own
life. That sort of thing always makes for good reading.
I will say, however, that Mr. Hersch is not the best
writer. What was really surprising is, I thought that the main thing lacking
from his prose was rhythm. He just chooses too many goofy, not completely
accurate words, so when the narrative starts bouncing around, there was a
tendency to get lost and lose the entire track of the narrative. Then I would
have to go back and reread passages to piece the story back together. It’s just
like playing in a jazz combo, too, in that when the rhythm isn’t there, the
musicians tend to make bad decisions. I think that is why his word choice was
not always correct, where what he wanted to say was somehow conveyed, but in a
convoluted or “out of rhythm” fashion. He also drove me crazy calling a cello a
‘cello. I thought that was just plain obstinate, especially because it wouldn’t
have been much of an issue except he has worked with a lot of ‘cellists who
play ‘cello.
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| The book will be on sale September 12, 2017. |
