Considering that IVF is a highly discussed issue this presidential campaign cycle, the timing for Longing to Meet You, guitarist Jake Hertzog’s fascinating and compellingly performed concept album dedicated to his family’s own experiences with the procedure couldn’t be better.
Before listeners go on the highly personal (yet truly universal) journey with Hertzog and his nimble, dynamic quarter of fellow Manhattan School alums (saxophonist Matt Woroshyl, bassist Perrin Grace and drummer Joe Peri, they need to know what everything worked out brilliantly with the birth of his daughter.
A heavy hitting sonic adventurer whose career has found multiple triumphs in jazz, rock, folk and classical music, Hertzog is the perfect visionary artist to tackle the complex emotions of such a private matter via passionate, alternately somber/delicate and chaotic/boisterous expressions of different emotions along the way. His spot on track titles take us right into the many facets of the experience, starting with the dreamy, lyrical meditation “Longing to Meet You” before exploring the darker, often harsh realities of fear (“A Dream Fades Slowly”) and on to the determination to make “The Attempt,” a bustling jam featuring Woroshyl’s wailing sax improvisations.
Along the way, Hertzog lets us in to the haunting confusion of being in “A Room With No Doors,” contemplating the melancholy possibilities of “Loss” and trying for what he hopes will be the bright, optimism filled “The Last Time.” After a prayerful “Interlude,” the guitarist charms with the folk-jazz flavored “Whisper You” before marking his daughter’s “Arrival” with a large exhale and abundant joy, shared via Hertzog’s fast strumming paired with Woroshyl’s freewheeling horn fire. Kudos to Hertzog for sharing his truest heart and for allowing jazz to be a safe space for important, life-giving conversations.
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