Word: redman
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...Joshua Redman brought his highly communicative quartet to Sanders Theater on Sunday night, and it was, in his own words, "a trip." Despite the lingering immaturity of his own saxophone style, Redman has put together a solid jazz group which, with the guest appearance of the greatest bass player of our generation, Christian McBride, put the Sanders Theater stage to good use. The packed house reacted enthusiastically to Redman's every move and indeed there were moments in the show when Redman's playing almost lived up to his charisma and popular appeal...
...there were also times in the performance, especially during Redman's solos, when the level of intensity on stage fell way short of the standard set by the energetic Sanders audience. The majority of the first set performed by the quartet consisted of uninspired jams on simple, repetitive tunes composed by Redman. While this was a version of straight-ahead jazz at its most miasmic, Redman proved later in the set that he is still willing to go out on a limb, even at the risk of alienating his huge following. Redman's sincere version of Ornette Coleman...
...continuing lack of emotional depth and seriousness in much, but not all, of Redman's playing seems to signify a persistent lack of artistic maturity. He has the skills, but not the overall aesthetic sense to find an appropriate setting for them. One of the most aggravating motifs that continually recurs in Redman's playing in his insistence on rising into the shrill falsetto of his tenor sax at utterly inappropriate times. On a ballad entitled "Never End," Redman seemed to mock any legitimate musical statements he may have made earlier in the piece by turning the tenor sax into...
...cerebral, challenging compositions possess depths that cannot always be fully explored in the sometimes constraining format of musical theater. Those depths are plumbed here. Each track on Color and Light features one or more jazz musicians performing a Sondheim show tune. Singer Peabo Bryson and saxophonist Joshua Redman join forces on a version of Sondheim's Pretty Women (from the musical Sweeney Todd) that is mature and mysterious, dark and sweet. Grover Washington Jr., with charismatic sax runs, turns the understated melody of Every Day a Little Death (from A Little Night Music) into something direct and forceful. And Bryson...
...just four years as a pro, bassist Christian McBride has developed a strong but unobtrusive rhythmic style that has made him a ubiquitous musical presence. Although he's only 22, he has played on some 70 recordings and has toured with the top soloists, most recently saxophone wunderkind Joshua Redman. Now McBride's solo debut, Gettin' to It, should establish him as more than just a hotshot accompanist...