20 • ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM
Cincinnati native Fred Hersch returns for two concert dates Jewish jazz pianist Fred Hersch will be returning home for two dates at the Blue Wisp: Monday, Sept. 24 and Tuesday, Sept. 25. The concert is a celebration of Hersch’s new double CD, Alive at the Vanguard, with bassist John Hébert and drummer Eric McPherson. Hersch’s trio displays all the rhythmic daring, preternatural interplay, harmonic sophistication and passionate lyricism that makes it one of the era’s definitive ensembles. “This may be my best trio playing on record, in terms of range, sound, being in the moment, and the way we play together,” says Hersch, 56. “Not that I disown any of my former (groups), but considering where I was three to four years ago, this is very strong, focused playing.” Much of the trio’s strength comes from Hersch’s side men. “I’ve always loved John’s playing,” Hersch says of bassist Hébert. “He’s from Baton Rouge, and his playing has a looseness that’s great for me. He’s also done
Fred Hersch
his homework in the tradition. He can really play a ballad and he knows where the substitute chords are.” The group’s revelation may be its drummer, McPherson, though he’s hardly a new face on the scene. A standout since he joined Jackie McLean’s band as a teenager in the early 1990s, he spent 15
years with the alto legend. That, along with his work accompanying heavyweights like Hill, Pharaoh Sanders and Greg Osby, established McPherson as a forceful and resourceful post-bop player versed in the polyrhythmic vocabularies of Elvin Jones and Jack DeJohnette. But in Hersch’s trio he comfortably embraces a less-ismore trap set aesthetic, with masterly dynamic control, quiet intensity and consistently thoughtful textural shadings. When it’s time to flex his muscles, like the rollicking Charlie Parker blues “Segment” or his cascading solo on “Opener,” which Hersch composed as a feature for McPherson, he plays with the requisite punch. “Eric is incredible at what we call the transition game, going from brushes to sticks and other implements,” Hersch says. “I’m not sure how many people realize that. He’s kind of a sleeper. He knows the tradition in and out. He came up as a sideman with some great musicians and he is quite a magician himself.” In many ways Hersch’s ascen-
dance to jazz’s top ranks is a wonder, given his relatively late discovery of the music. Born and raised in Cincinnati, he studied music theory and composition while growing up and sang in high school theater productions. It wasn’t until he was attending Grinnell College in Iowa that he turned on to jazz when he started listening to John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Miles Davis and Chick Corea. But the jazz bug really bit him when he went home for the holidays and happened into a Cincinnati jazz spot. He ended up dropping out of school and earned his stripes on the bandstand, with veteran musicians serving as his professors. After honing his chops for 18 months, he enrolled at New England Conservatory, earned an undergraduate degree and made the move to New York City in 1977. Hersch quickly gained recognition as a superlative accompanist, performing and recording with masters such as Stan Getz, Joe Henderson, Billy Harper, Lee Konitz, and Art Farmer. Since releasing his first album under his own name, he’s recorded in an
array of settings, including a series of captivating solo recitals, duos with vocalists Janis Siegel and Norma Winstone, and ambitious recent projects, like his chamber jazz setting for Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.” As an educator, Hersch has shepherded some of the finest young pianists in jazz through his teaching at NEC and the New School. If there’s one thread running through Hersch’s career it’s the trio. From his first session with Marc Johnson and Joey Baron, he’s pushed at the limits of lyricism and temporal fluidity with similarly searching improvisers. It’s telling that his trio-mates have included versatile musicians such as Michael Formanek and Tom Rainey. “When trio is right it’s very strong, but also very fragile,” Hersch says. “If it’s right it’s transcendent, and if anything is off, the whole thing crumbles. John and Eric are both incredibly alert. I don’t feel like there’s any ego. We’re all trying to serve the music as it unfolds.”
Festival Ecothiopia: A Celebration of Ethiopian Culture and Environmental Action By Isaac Blachor Guest Writer By the time Adam Ganson made aliyah in 2010, he had already developed a profound connection with the Land of Israel. He just never expected to end up as the co-executive director of Earth’s Promise, an organization located in Be’er Sheva that works with Ethiopian immigrants. Jewish National Fund (JNF) helps fund Earth’s Promise, whose mission is to promote sustainability in the Negev by planting food gardens and urban farms in Be’er Sheva, Ashkelon and other Negev communities. Many of the participants who work in the gardens are new immigrants from the northern region of Gondar and Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Adam attended Cincinnati’s Yavneh Day School, and by the time he finished high school, he had visited Israel three times. During college Adam stayed involved in Israel activities and majored in Jewish Studies. “Everyone I knew thought I was studying to be a rabbi,” said Adam. “I knew I was studying to get to Israel.” After commencement Adam participated in a summer program at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, a JNF partner, in Israel’s Arava region. Adam’s connection to JNF became stronger. His studies at the Institute were aided by a grant from the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati that makes educational trips to Israel possible.
The band that performed that night, Shabate, a mix of Ethiopian and Chassidic musicians. They had the place dancing in the aisles.
While studying for a Master’s degree in Environmental Law and Policy at Vermont Law School, the Jewish Law Student Association participated in JNF’s Alternative Break Program. A unique volunteer experience, the program activates and involves young adults to express their love for Israel and contribute to the society. On the JNF Alternative Break program, Adam was exposed to Earth’s Promise. “When I visited the Earth’s Promise Kalisher Community Garden for the first time I was shocked by the drastic contrast between neglected open desert space and the lush green gardens growing in the Be’er Sheva desert city,” he recalled. In 2009 he headed north to an internship in the Carmel region.
When he returned to Israel as a new immigrant in 2010, Adam worked with a community composting project where he went on weekly organic waste collection trips, and then became the Community Coordinator at the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI). When he received a call from the founder of Earth’s Promise offering him a job to manage the organization, Adam considered the offer: “I thought, this opportunity is clearly better than working in the garbage, so I decided to move to Be’er Sheva and take on the challenge.” The community garden in Kalisher is Earth’s Promise flagship project and base for expansion. The garden contains 50 family plots that have become an important focus in
the lives of recent Ethiopian immigrants that are living in Be’er Sheva. Their garden is the heart of community life. Parents and children work together to grow an important food source while getting to know and connect with the Land of Israel, their new home. Many of the varieties of food from Ethiopian cuisine that are grown there cannot be found at the local grocery market, so the seeds are bought from traveling vendors. Many Ethiopian immigrants come from rural areas in Ethiopia and immigrate directly into absorption centers located in cities. The transition from rural to urban living can pose an additional challenge in the absorption process. Facing a new reality where adaptation is so vital, some find the new language, setting and work a daunting challenge. They view the practice of traditional farming in the middle of their new desert city home as an expression of pride in their knowledge and abilities. The garden gives the older generation an important opportunity to pass on that knowledge to future generations. The oldest of men, known as Abba, are the most dedicated workers, limberly tending to the plot, pulling up weeds, and watering the gardens. The results are astounding: produce is grown that brings pride to the community and families. Although the new generation generally adapts quickly, the older generation can help the youth understand their roots and preserve traditional knowledge that might
otherwise be forgotten and lost. In addition to cultivating community gardens, Earth’s Promise also hosts an annual event called Ecothiopia, a celebration of Ethiopian culture and ecology. The event is a showcase for the urban gardens whose caretakers are the recent immigrants living in the adjacent absorption center. This year, the Ethiopian community opened its doors on Wednesday, June 6 for Festival Ecothiopia, which took place in the Kalisher Community Garden in Be’er Sheva. The third annual Festival Ecothiopia, organized by Earth’s Promise in cooperation with Kalisher Absorption Center and supported by JNF, drew hundreds of people from Be’er Sheva including new and veteran Ethiopian immigrants, students of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, and families from Be’er Sheva and the Negev region, as well Isaac Blachor, JNF Vice President for Israel Relations, who was instrumental in arranging the initial funding by JNF. The festival was a unique opportunity to meet the neighbors, experience new smells and tastes, and strengthen the environmental action in Be’er Sheva. The garden setting gave the immigrants an opportunity to show the summer season’s bounty of unique Ethiopian variety of crops, including corn, hot peppers and collard greens. The festival took place in tandem ECOTHIOPIA on page 21