Barikada
- World Of Music - Svastara - 2007 |
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JOSHUA REDMAN
P o r t r a i t
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Joshua Redman (USA)
P o r t r a i t |
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Joshua Redman’s "Back East" is the tenor saxophonist
and composer's
second Nonesuch release
and his first recording in an acoustic trio setting. A marked contrast to Redman's
plugged-in,
groove-based sessions with the Elastic Band or his collaborations with the
eight-piece SFJAZZ
Collective, this sax-bass-drums format harkens back to the Berkeley, California-based
artist’s
early days as a performer, more than 15 years ago. He was indeed working back
east then, in
Boston and New York City, and necessity as much as aesthetics often dictated
the lineup.
Sometimes a club he'd be playing simply wouldn't have a
piano, in which case a quartet would
be out of the question. But Redman, whom The New York Times has described as
"a remarkably
fluid improviser", isn't merely attempting to recall his scuffling roots.
Back East is full of in the-moment pleasures, thanks to the natural rapport
between Redman and the three NYC-based
rhythm sections with whom he works. But take a closer look at the songs he's
chosen, the
arrangements he's fashioned and the players he's hanging out with, and this
set becomes even
more deeply compelling. Redman incorporates a stunningly wide range of ideas,
experiences
and influences, creating a multi-layered self-portrait via the sounds, people,
and places that have
helped to shape his career.
On "Back East", Redman says, there is "a sense of return
to a style I associate with the east coast, a
return to playing -for lack of a better description - modern, swing-based,
acoustic jazz. This
was and is my musical bread and butter, the core of what I do. That approach
to playing is one I really immersed myself in and developed during my time
on the east coast. In Boston, I wasn't
studying music, but I was hanging out with a lot of musicians, and that's where
I really learned
how to play. And when I first moved to New York, I was still playing a lot
of jam sessions, and doing lots of gigs at local clubs, bars and restaurants,
sometimes with just bass and drums. So there's this sense of getting back
to something that was really important to me in terms of my
musical development but which I haven't captured so much recently through
touring and
recording."
While he was still working with the funk-infused, electrified
Elastic Band, whose most recent
project was the 2005 Nonesuch disc "Momentum", Redman started to compose new
material with
an acoustic trio in mind. The process evolved into a sort of internal dialogue
about the concepts of east and west, but not just in terms of two distinct
coasts. "East" for Redman also represents
non-western sounds - Middle Eastern, Indonesian, Indian, African - that have
surfaced in his
writing and arranging, and that came to play an important, if subtle, role
here.
"As I was writing," Redman explains, "some eastern influences,
which have always been in my
music on some level, were coming out perhaps a little more strongly in this
context. When I was really young, my mom took me to this place called the
Center for World Music in Berkeley, where I studied (on a very rudimentary
level, of course) South Indian drumming and Indonesian
Gamelan. She also took me to all sorts of music and dance performances - Indian,
Indonesian,
Persian, North African, Japanese, Tibetan... you name it. There was a lot
of that in the Bay Area
in those days - a really eclectic, outward-looking, cross-cultural orientation."
The spare,
sinuous "Zarafah" is, at least in part, a nod to this period and a special
dedication to his mother,
dancer Renee Shedroff.
The east / west dichotomy soon became even more of a leitmotif.
Says Redman, "One day I had
one of those cool, quintessentially 21st century, digital music experiences.
I had my iTunes on
shuffle and the Sonny Rollins album "Way Out West" came on. I always loved
that record, but I hadn't heard it in probably over a decade. "I'm An Old
Cow Hand" was playing and, man, it just
sounded so amazing. It was almost like I was hearing it again for the first
time. Naturally, it had
a lot of relevance to the new music I was working on, because Sonny Rollins
was probably the first, and arguably the greatest, saxophonist to really embrace
the trio format. I got this burst of inspiration and came up with my own arrangement
of "I'm An Old Cowhand". Sonny's influence is clearly there in
terms of the hard-driving and freewheeling approach, but I used
harmonies, melodies and rhythms that give this version a bit of an eastern
flavor. Immediately after that I started working on an arrangement of "Wagon
Wheels", also from Way Out West,
which ended up with even more of that feeling."
Both of those tunes made it to Redman's final track list,
and Rollins' 1957 classic trio outing,
"Way Out West", became a touchstone for the entire project: "There's
something stark and
contemplative about the trio format, but something liberating and exhilarating
about it as well. There's an introspective quality, a real intensity to it,
but that intensity can also be very emotive
and outward-reaching. Perhaps that's part of the reason Sonny started to work
with just bass and
drums, so he could explore and express his ideas and emotions as freely as
possible. That's one
of the things about trio that I find so compelling. Don't get me wrong: I
love the piano! And
there is a lot of music I can't imagine playing without a pianist. But the
absence of a dedicated
harmonic instrument does create the possibility for much more freedom, in many
different
areas - harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, formal, textural. It's a lot of fun.
But as the saying goes, "with freedom, comes responsibility". Playing
trio can be uniquely liberating; and especially
challenging!"
Redman had initially envisioned an album of mostly originals,
but, with Rollins' vintage covers
as a jumping-off point, he created new arrangements of songs originally composed
by, or associated with, major saxophone influences, such as John Coltrane
("India"), Stan Getz ("East
of the Sun") and Wayne Shorter ("Indian Song"). Although he
was more accustomed to working
with just a single set of players in the studio, for this project Redman chose
to record with three
different rhythm sections, all of them long-time collaborators as well as old
friends, each bringing something unique to the mix. Bassist Larry Grenadier
and drummer Ali Jackson ("their
sound together is so strong, centered, buoyant and clear", says Redman)
play on six tracks,
opening and closing the disc. Bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland
("fluid,
flexible, organic, energetic") can be heard on three, and bassist Christian
McBride and drummer Brian Blade ("mature, soulful, empathetic, virtuosic")
on the remaining two.
Sitting in on "Indian Song" is tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano,
whom Redman describes as a "a
true hero, a huge influence, one of the greatest saxophonists to emerge post-Coltrane,
a master of
rhythm and phrasing". Playing soprano on Redman's own "Mantra #5" is Chris
Cheek, who, "of
all the saxophonists of my generation", says Redman, "has probably had the
most profound
impact on my own musical development. He completely knocked me out when I first
heard him
upon arriving in Boston. And over the next four years, listening to Chris really
helped me find my way as a saxophonist and an improviser."
Foremost among Redman's guests was his 75-year-old father,
the legendary Dewey Redman,
who would, unfortunately, pass away several months after the Back East sessions
were
completed. Dewey plays tenor on "India". "We did a few takes", Joshua remembers,
"and
everything was cool. I was getting ready to start on another song when Dad
said, 'Okay, but
now I want to record something else, on alto'" ... and, Dewey added, he wanted
to do it by
himself, backed only by Grenadier and Jackson. Slightly puzzled, Joshua left
his father with his band-mates. "I walked around the corner and got
an espresso, came back maybe eight minutes later, and Dad was already packing
up. 'How'd it
go?' I asked. 'Fine, one take', he said. So I thought, 'Great. Let's move
on'. We were kind of
running behind in the session, so I didn't even really listen to the song
then. In fact, I almost
forgot about it. It wasn't until days later, when I was back at home in Berkeley,
that I really got
a chance to check it out. Of course, I was blown away. It's an incredible piece
of music: so
warm, deep and wise."
The track Dewey had created, "GJ" had been intended
as a gift to Josh’s infant son. It took on an
even more profound cast after Dewey's passing. That studio date represented
the final meeting
of father and son as well as the last recording the elder Redman made. "GJ"
became a gift to
Joshua as well, a reminder of when he was performing back east with his father,
in '91 and '92:
"I played and toured with Dad a lot when I first came to New York. I really
got to know him as
a person as well as a master musician. Playing with him, having to solo after
him every night, made me realize just how young and immature I was. It was
his depth of soul, the hugeness and warmth and humanity of his sound. The
wisdom and compassion and patience that lay behind
every note he played. Probably more than anything, else, I learned from him
about sound, about phrasing, and about how to play the blues." "GJ" is
a fitting coda, then, to an album that is as much about generations as geography.
With
"Back East", Redman traces the path inspiration travels from decade
to decade, coast to coast,
continent to continent, artist to artist, heart to heart.
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