Fred Hersch Ensemble

Is Whitman America's favourite poet? Absolutely, as far as he was concerned, though others found him to be an offensive bohemian who, in his magnum opus Leaves of Grass, exalted lust as the world's desire to reproduce, in such suggestive titles as 'A Woman Waits for Me'. Aficionados, then as well as now, explained Whitman's sexuality as being more occult than obscene. According to them, Whitman was and is the promoter of a democratic Creation story, centred on the universal equality of the individual. As extravagant as the amalgam Leaves of Grass may be, its inherent conviction and poetic force sustain it. All the squabbling did not faze Whitman. At the end of 'Song of Myself', he states, perhaps somewhat arrogantly, 'Do I contradict myself? I am large, I contain multitudes', and further, 'The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it'. More than one hundred years after Whitman's death, Fred Hersch compliments the maestro with a rich tribute, and an 'all-time dream band' sings the praises of Walt Whitman's America.