(Translated From Danish)
For anyone who knows anything at all about jazz, the name of jazz pianist Fred Hersch is a household name, he has dozens of albums to his name, vibraphonist Dick Sisto is another story, I had never heard of him, and that is likely the case for more jazz lovers. This 80-year-old vibraphonist was in love with jazz when he lived in Chicago, he visited clubs like London House, Plugged Nickel and the Sutherland Lounge where he heard musicians such as Milt Jackson, Oscar Peterson and Ahmad Jamal, John Coltrane and Miles Davis. He started with the drums but switched to the vibraphone so that he could together with his friend who played the drums. After his departure to Northwestern University just outside Chicago he formed The Quartet Four, the drummer Maurice White would become known to Ramsey Lewis and later as founder of Earth, Wind and Fire. Later, Sisto left for Northern California where he in a spiritual life lived in the commune and composed music for the poetry of people like Alan Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Then Thomas Merton comes into the picture, an invincible Catholic priest, mystic, and socialist activist, he was a Trappist, wrote many books, and was in dialogue with other religions. But he also loved jazz, that is how he came into contact with Sisto, who had also wanted to become a priest before he heeded the call of the Bebop.
Fred Hersch is also an admirer of Merton, that is one of the things that connected him to Sisto. Fred encouraged him to record an album and offered to play along, and that is how the album came about. “American Love Song” came into being, which was re-released thirty years later by Steeplechase under the name “Falling In Love”. This duo album came about in more or less the same way, two musicians who played together sporadically but greatly appreciate each other and often think in the same direction. The Sisto’s admiration for Fred’s piano playing has only grown since their album. Hersch says about Sisto: “Sisto is a lovely guy, a special guy – a very soulful person. He’s a great musician, and I have a lot of respect for him. He raised 10 kids while living on a dairy farm, but still managed to play jazz.
But what about the music on this album? Despite a collaboration between piano and although the vibraphone is not always that easy due to the almost identical sounds, it succeeded here nonetheless, certainly also because one instrument consistently takes the lead, as in the opener “Only trust your heart” by Benny Carter, where Sisto opens and Hersch follows later. Fred Hersch is represented with three numbers, Sisto with two, furthermore we hear compositions by Cole Porter, Wayne Shorter, Roberto Menescal, Jack Elliott & Don Marcotte and the closing poem with one of my all-time favorites “Blue Monk” by Thelonius. No comments? Yes, the sound balance is not optimal, so the vibraphone sounds much louder than the piano, which somewhat overshadows Hersch’s formidable playing; a shame, a mistake by the technician, I think.
Jan van Leersum