John Herberman - Spring Comes Early (2023)

John Herberman is not widely known as a jazz musician. For 35 years, he split his professional life between a successful career as a screen composer and orchestrator, and composer/producer of over 45 albums for the Solitudes and Avalon labels, of which one attained Platinum status and 7 reached Gold. Three albums were nominated for JUNO awards. His combined ouptut for these two labels achieved international sales in the millions, and John regularly receives accolades from all over North America, Europe and Japan for his moving piano and small ensemble compositions.

Around the time that COVID hit, Herberman made the decision to return to his ‘roots’ and his passion for the jazz of the late 1950s and early 60s with the Canadian release his first independent jazz album entitled Overheard On a Park Bench in 2021. Since then, several of the tracks from that album have been played in regular rotation on Canada’s national jazz radio station, 99.1 JazzFM.

Spring Comes Early is Herberman’s second record of original jazz tunes. Almost two years in the making, it was recorded in late 2022 and early 2023 at the Canterbury Music Co. with Grammy- and JUNO-nominated engineer Jeremy Darby. Both of these projects were recorded primarily with musicians with whom Herberman has developed professional relationships over his career as a freelance composer, and who collectively represent some of the finest jazz artists that Toronto has produced.

Herberman’s jazz influences include such artists as early Miles Davis, Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans, and more recently the eclectic Snarky Puppy, and these influences are on full display on this collection of 8 original tunes. John is heard on piano and Scarbee Rhodes, a wonderful emulation and expansion of the iconic Fender Rhodes Mark I keyboard.