BY JASLYN ROBERTSON/STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Queer and Now is our interview series exploring identity.
Many composers and musicians will allow their art to speak for itself. Not always are they asked about their personal lives.
We think it’s important to give all individuals a platform to express their views – to speak openly about what shapes them, and tell us how they feel the world perceives them. We want to share stories that will help others express their individuality as they navigate a career anchored in past traditions.
Twelve-time Grammy nominee Fred Hersch is celebrated as an innovative pianist in jazz music and known for a personal and expressive pianistic style. He has broken deeply rooted barriers as the first openly gay, HIV-positive jazz player, and has lived with the disease for more than 30 years.
His newly released memoir Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In and Out of Jazz chronicles his career, including re-building his health and technique after a months-long coma in 2008 left him unable to hold even a pencil.
Fred will appear as a special guest in Eunbi Kim’s performance for her debut album release, A House of Many Rooms: New Concert Music by Fred Hersch.
As the first openly gay, HIV-positive jazz player, have you ever felt ostracised in the jazz community? What has this experience been like for you?
I am sure that things have been said behind my back over the years, but I have been out so long that everyone knows at this point and no one seems to care. It seems to be – thankfully – a non-issue. When I came out in the major media in the early ’90s about being gay and having HIV, I had no idea how long I would live. So my motivation was to help those who might be struggling with coming out about both their identity and their disease. I knew people who were thinking, ‘If I get sick, my family will take care of me’. But in some instances, tragically, their families shunned or disowned them.
Also, I felt that if I wanted to be the artist I thought I could be, I was tired of compartmentalising my life. The price of any type of closet is personally and creatively steep.
You’ve written powerful music about your experience with AIDS and being in a coma. How did your approach to music change after your diagnosis?
I feel looser and freer post-coma. I think my playing has more depth, and I am not micro-managing it. Gratefully, my facility has come back and in many ways is stronger than pre-illness. But this may be helped by the fact that I am now 62 and have long since gotten past the place where I have to prove anything to anyone – and that has helped me relax as a musician.
What have been the career challenges, benefits, or impacts (either real or perceived) of publicly expressing your identity?
For me, there have been no downsides at all – only good things have come of being unapologetically myself in every way.
Do you feel that the music world has become more accepting in recent years?
Certainly! There will always be people who, for whatever reasons, remain closeted – or, at least, may have not acknowledged their orientation publicly; though many are already aware of it. I think it is a personal decision to come out, and everyone needs to do it in their own way and in their own time.
The only time I believe that ‘outing’ is justified is when someone gay is in position of power and they are using that power to discriminate against LBGTQIA+ individuals.
What advice would you give to LGBTQIA+ identifying artists who hope to achieve their dreams in Australia?
I have never been to Australia, so I am not sure that I can specifically answer this question. But I say everyone has the right to chase their dreams, and that the world is in a far more accepting place than when I was young. Now LGBTQIA+ youth has so many healthy role models – that was hard for me to imagine growing up gay in the ’60s.
Fred Hersch will appear in a concert marking pianist Eunbi Kim’s debut recording, A House of Many Rooms: New Concert Music by Fred Hersch on Albany Records. Eunbi will perform at Joe’s Pub, 7pm April 5 and Fred will appear as a special guest for a Q&A. The album was co-produced by Fred Hersch and Ryan Streber in New York.
A House of Many Rooms: New Concert Music by Fred Hersch is available on iTunes, Amazon.com and Spotify. Visit Eunbi Kim at eunbikimmusic.com.
Images supplied. Fred captured by Steve J Sharman; Eunbi by Shervin Lainez.
