“I don’t write a lot of harmonies,” Hertenstein says. “Following the logic of counterpoint, I write a riff that I like, find a melody, and leave it there. I trust the musicians to come up with spontaneous changes during their improvisations that are so much hipper than anything I could come up with.” The searing perfor mances captured on Live at Porgy&Bess prove that his impulse was correct.

Peter Margasak