The Literature Network - Songs of Whitman: jazz pianist Fred Hersch crowns a lifetime of achievement with Leaves of Grass, an evening-long composition based on the poetry of protoqueer poet Walt Whitman. (music).(Interview)

Songs of Whitman: jazz pianist Fred Hersch crowns a lifetime of achievement with Leaves of Grass, an evening-long composition based on the poetry of protoqueer poet Walt Whitman. (music).(Interview)

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From: The Advocate (The national gay & lesbiannewsmagazine)
Date: 20030401
Author:Fries, Kenny

"I've been dogged by my musical choices," says jazz pianist and composer Fred Hersch. "Yes, I chose to play Billy Strayhorn and Cole Porter, who were gay. But flit wasn't great work, I wouldn't have been great in playing their stuff. Their being gay was incidental. In 2003 it's not fundamentally interesting that somebody is gay."

Now, Hersch--perhaps the most prominent gay jazz--turns to Walt Whitman, arguably the father of all gay icons, for his new full-evening piece, Leaves of Grass, debuting in Michigan in late March, then traveling to New Jersey and Washington, D.C., in ...

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Songs of Whitman: jazz pianist Fred Hersch crowns a lifetime of achievement with Leaves of Grass, an evening-long composition based on the poetry of protoqueer poet Walt Whitman. (music).(Interview)

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