# CD review: Esperanza Spalding and Fred Hersch Duo – But Not For Me 2020: Video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2020/06/04/cd-review-esperanza-spalding-and-fred-hersch-duo-but-not-for-me-2020-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2020-06-04T12:43:20+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**The first thing we hear from Esperanza Spalding in this set, recorded at the Village
Vanguard in 2018, is an appreciative grunt during Fred Hersch’s oblique introduction
to the opening number, “But Not for Me_.” _**

That sound is an early sign of how much these musicians admire each other: Hersch
on piano and Spalding singing. (She is also one of the premiere bassists in jazz,
but here she shows herself to be a devastatingly inventive vocalist.) Theirs is 
a special performance, relaxed, free, far-ranging in their improvisations, and witty.
It is offered to us via what is called a “rough mix,” which means that nothing in
this set has been edited. This EP is meant to support a special cause. Spalding 
and Hersch, both highly celebrated in the jazz world, decided to package the five
numbers in this set as a benefit; the proceeds will go to the Jazz Foundation of
America’s COVID-19 Musicians’ Emergency Fund.

Spalding is all-around remarkable, even in the way she handles the audience. (She
blesses a guy who sneezes without dropping a beat.) Over Hersch’s rattling, spunky
playing she introduces Neal Hefti’s “Girl Talk” by asking if anyone remembers the
scene in _Mission Impossible_ in which a spy says one thing to an interrogator and
means another. That’s how she clues us into her version of the song: “There’s something
in there, there’s something more in this song, that maybe only a select few are 
supposed to understand … 51 percent.” Somehow, her “Girl Talk” becomes a statement
of feminist pride. At the end she gives the audience permission to practice girl
talk on its own.

That approach is typical of the performance: the two make each song personal in 
a slightly different way. On “But Not for Me_,” _Spalding plays with the phrasing
from the beginning, dragging out “Russian play.” Then she skips ahead to keep up
with Hersch’s dazzlingly simple introduction and continues in her speaking voice:”
and then there’s some words I don’t understand.… It’s like old English. That’s how
I feel confused about the whole situation.” Most of us feel confused about our situations:
her humor strikes a timely nerve. Throughout the tune, even when she breaks into
prose, as it were, she treats the Gershwin melody with an athletic inventiveness.
Perhaps she developed this distinctive style from her bass playing: her vocals walk,
or scurry, upwards and back down again. Finally, she bursts into scat. Hersch’s 
solo, as are his performances throughout the set, is just as remarkable. He moves
a great distance from what Gershwin wrote. He is energized throughout, rhapsodic
I would say — except that his most wildly varied improvisations are shaped by a 
kind of steely logic, an unyielding line that runs through the whole.

The marvelous relationship continues with Hersch’s “Dream of Monk,” a tribute to
Thelonious Monk’s “Monk’s Dream.” The lyrics are ambiguous: the singer dreams of
Monk, wondering what is going on in the master’s head. Is he crazy? Hersch’s accompaniment
jumps about, barely suggesting Monk’s trademark percussiveness — yet he pays nimble
tribute to the legend’s whimsical timing. The duo are at their most romantic on “
Some Other Time.”  “Imagine I really thought I wouldn’t be swayed by you,” Spalding
sings. But later on she assures her lover that they will take a vow of fidelity —
but “not now.” This is Hersch’s most pacific solo on the disc, but the transparency
of his lines are as fascinating as always. Yes, purchasing this recording will help
out a good cause, but the musical value here is priceless: Fred Hersch at his best
and a dazzling side of Esperanza Spalding I haven’t heard before.

1. But Not For Me 09:26
 2. Dream Of Monk 07:37 3. Girl Talk 11:56 4. Some Other
Time 07:20 5. Loro 09:39

![But Not For Me | ESPERANZA SPALDING & FRED HERSCH](https://i0.wp.com/f4.bcbits.
com/img/a2135156833_10.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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