The Red and Black

Issue date: 9/21/07 Section: Variety

Media Credit: COURTESY OF JOSHUA REDMAN The Melting Point will host renowned jazz musician Joshua Redman Saturday night as a change of pace. [Click to enlarge]

Georgia is fortunate to be located between Texas and Virginia, because one of the great jazz musicians of our time has decided to stop in Athens between gigs.

During ongoing efforts to book jazz musician Branford Marsalis (saxophone), The Melting Point came across a rare opportunity.

"Branford's agent also happens to represent Joshua Redman, and it just so happens that Redman was in the South," said Troy Aubrey, booking agent for The Melting Point. "Atlanta happened to be a good hub between Texas and Virginia, and we happened to catch him when he had a date off between flights."

While some of the saxophonist's trademarks include groove-oriented styles, sampling popular music and collaborating with fellow jazz giants Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell, his most recent album, "Back East," features his own personal zeal for jazz music.

"The new album is just saxophone, bass and drums," Redman said. "It's very stripped-down and basic and acoustic."

Redman's initial concept for "Back East" was to record many of his original compositions with the trio.

The project began to change, however, as Redman decided to lay a majority of the album with cover songs by some of his favorite artists, including John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter.

"I found myself discovering music from some of my heroes," Redman said. "It all started with hearing some songs from Sonny Rollins' 'Way Out West' album, and that kind of gave rise to doing some of my own versions of other great saxophone songs."

The album's success has little to do with Redman's devotion to playing concerts.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools