Joshua Redman Quartet - Come What May (2019)

Joshua Redman is one of the most acclaimed and charismatic jazz
artists to have emerged in the decade of the 1990s. Born in
Berkeley, California, he is the son of legendary saxophonist
Dewey Redman and dancer Renee Shedroff. He was exposed at an
early age to a variety of musics (jazz, classical, rock, soul,
Indian, Indonesian, Middle-Eastern, African) and instruments
(recorder, piano, guitar, gatham, gamelan), and began playing
clarinet at age nine before switching to what became his primary
instrument, the tenor saxophone, one year later. The early
influences of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cannonball Adderley
and his father, Dewey Redman, as well as The Beatles, Aretha
Franklin, the Temptations, Earth, Wind and Fire, Prince, The
Police and Led Zeppelin drew Joshua more deeply into music. But
although Joshua loved playing the saxophone and was a dedicated
member of the award-winning Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble
and Combo from 1983-86, academics were always his first priority,
and he never seriously considered becoming a professional
musician.In 1991 Redman graduated from Harvard College summa cum
laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Social Studies. He had
already been accepted by Yale Law School, but deferred entrance
for what he believed was only going to be one year. Some of his
friends (former students at the Berklee College of Music whom
Joshua had met while in Boston) had recently relocated to
Brooklyn, and they were looking for another housemate to help
with the rent. Redman accepted their invitation to move in, and
almost immediately he found himself immersed in the New York jazz
scene. He began jamming and gigging regularly with some of the
leading jazz musicians of his generation: Peter Bernstein, Larry
Goldings, Kevin Hays, Roy Hargrove, Geoff Keezer, Leon Parker,
Jorge Rossy and Mark Turner (to name just a few). In November of
that year, five months after moving to New York, Redman was named
the winner of the prestigious Thelonious Monk International
Saxophone Competition. This was only one of the more visible
highlights from a year that saw Redman beginning to tour and
record with jazz masters such as his father, Jack DeJohnette,
Charlie Haden, Elvin Jones, Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny, Paul Motian,
and Clark Terry. For Joshua, this was a period of tremendous
growth, invaluable experience and endless inspiration.Now fully
committed to a life in music, Redman was quickly signed by Warner
Bros. Records and issued his first, self-titled album in the
spring of 1993, which subsequently earned Redman his first Grammy
nomination. That fall saw the release of Wish, where Joshua was
joined by the all-star cast of Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden and
Billy Higgins. He toured extensively with Metheny throughout the
latter half of that year. His next recording, MoodSwing, was
released in 1994, and it introduced his first permanent band,
which included three other young musicians who have gone on to
become some of the most important and influential artists in
modern jazz: pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Christian McBride and
drummer Brian Blade. A later edition of this ensemble included
guitarist Peter Bernstein, pianist Peter Martin, bassist Chris
Thomas and Blade. Over a series of celebrated recordings
including Spirit of the Moment/Live at the Village Vanguard,
Freedom in the Groove and Timeless Tales (for Changing Times),
Redman established himself as one of the music's most consistent
and successful bandleaders, and added soprano and alto saxophones
to his instrumental arsenal. Joshua's second acclaimed quartet,
featuring pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Reuben Rogers and
drummer Gregory Hutchinson, was formed in 1998 and made its
recorded debut on the 2000 album Beyond. The dynamic interplay
and uncommon rapport of this group inspired Redman to write and
record his first long-form composition, Passage of Time, which
was released in 2001.A year later, Redman began to channel his
jazz sensibilities through new instrumentation and formed The
Elastic Band, a flexible, electrified, groove-based trio built on
an ongoing collaboration with keyboardist Sam Yahel and drummer
Brian Blade. The band debuted on the 2002 releases yaya3 and
Elastic. Drummer Jeff Ballard began to play regularly with the
Elastic Band later that year, and he (along with Blade and Yahel)
played a central role in their next recording, the Grammy-
nominated Momentum, which was released in 2005 to inaugurate
Redman's affiliation with Nonesuch Records, and featured a
diverse and exciting lineup of special guests.In 2000, Redman was
named Artistic Director for the Spring Season of the non-profit
jazz-presenting organization SFJAZZ. Redman and SFJAZZ Executive
Director Randall Kline had an idea that The New York Times called
a "eureka moment"; the creation of the SFJAZZ Collective, an
ensemble distinguished both by the creativity of its members and
a unique primary emphasis on composition. Inaugurated in 2004,
the eight-piece band consists of a multi-generational cast of
accomplished musicians. The Collective's repertoire features both
commissioned works and new arrangements of the work of great
modern jazz composers. In March 2007, Redman announced that he
was taking a hiatus from both the SFJAZZ Artistic Directorship
and the SFJAZZ Collective in order to focus on new projects.The
following month, Nonesuch released Redman's first ever piano-less
trio record, Back East, featuring Joshua alongside three stellar
bass and drum rhythm sections (Larry Grenadier & Ali Jackson,
Christian McBride & Brian Blade, Reuben Rogers & Eric Harland)
and three very special guest saxophonists (Chris Cheek, Joe
Lovano and Dewey Redman). On Compass, released in January 2009
(Nonesuch), Joshua continues to explore the expansive trio
format, and with a group of collaborators as intrepid as he is -
bassists Larry Grenadier and Rueben Rogers, and drummers Brian
Blade and Gregory Hutchinson - Redman literally and figuratively
stretches the shape of the trio approach; on the most audacious
of these tunes, he performs with the entire lineup in a double-
trio setting.Starting in late 2009, Joshua will be performing
with a new collaborative band called James Farm featuring pianist
Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman, and drummer Eric Harland. The
band infuses traditional acoustic jazz quartet instrumentation
with a progressive attitude and modern sound, creating music that
is rhythmically and technically complex and at the same time
harmonically rich, melodically satisfying, and emotionally
compelling.In addition to his own projects, Redman has recorded
and performed with musicians such as Brian Blade, Ray Brown, Dave
Brubeck, Chick Corea, The Dave Matthews Band, Jack DeJohnette,
Bill Frisell, Aaron Goldberg, Larry Goldings, Charlie Haden,
Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove, Roy Haynes, Billie Higgins, Milt
Jackson, Elvin Jones, Quincy Jones, Big Daddy Kane, Geoff Keezer,
B.B. King, The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, DJ Logic, Joe
Lovano, Yo Yo Ma, Branford Marsalis, Christian McBride, John
Medeski, Brad Mehldau, Pat Metheny, Marcus Miller, Paul Motian,
MeShell Ndegeocello, Leon Parker, Nicholas Payton, John Psathas,
Simon Rattle, Dewey Redman, Dianne Reeves, Melvin Rhyne, The
Rolling Stones, The Roots, Kurt Rosenwinkel, John Scofield,
Soulive, String Cheese Incident, Clark Terry, Toots Thielemans,
The Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Mark Turner, McCoy Tyner, Umphrey's
McGee, US3, Bugge Wesseltoft, Cedar Walton, Stevie Wonder and Sam
Yahel. Joshua Redman has been nominated for 2 Grammys and has
garnered top honors in critics and readers polls of DownBeat,
Jazz Times, The Village Voice and Rolling Stone. He wrote and
performed the music for Louis Malle's final film Vanya on 42nd
Street, and is both seen and heard in the Robert Altman film
Kansas City.