Jazz ensemble The Fred Hersch Pocket Orchestra in concert February 7, 2009

San Francisco Performances is proud to present the first major concert and West Coast debut of the Fred Hersch Pocket Orchestra. The ensemble features multiple Grammy-nominated composer/pianist Fred Hersch, along with vocalist Jo Lawry, trumpeter Ralph Alessi and percussionist Richie Barshay. The program will feature original works by Hersch.

Fred Hersch has earned his place among the foremost jazz artists and creative musicians in the world today. He is widely recognized for his ability to steadfastly create a unique body of original works while reinventing the standard jazz repertoire. His many accomplishments include two Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance and a 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for composition. He was also nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition. His setting of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass poems premiered to a sold-out Carnegie Hall and was a hit of the San Francisco Performances jazz series in 2006.

Australian vocalist Jo Lawry began studies at the New England Conservatory for a Doctor of Musical Arts in Jazz Performance in 2006 and will be the first vocalist to be awarded this degree from that institution. Trumpeter/composer/educator Ralph Alessi Alessi is the founder and current director of the School for Improvisational Music as well as being an adjunct professor at New York University. Percussionist Richie Barshay, most noted as a member of the Herbie Hancock Quartet since 2003, also works with the Klezmatics, Kenny Werner and Chick Corea, among others.

After graduating from the New England Conservatory in 1977, Hersch relocated to New York City and quickly became one of the most in-demand pianists in town. As a sideman, he appeared with such jazz masters as saxophonists Stan Getz, Joe Henderson and Jane Ira Bloom; flugelhornist Art Farmer; harmonica virtuoso Toots Thielemans; vibraphonist Gary Burton; and bassists Sam Jones and Charlie Haden.

$39/$27.

Official Website: http://www.performances.org