By Mike Brannon
(There is always) truth in the moment".
The Search ever widens for some. Art is life as much as life is art.
Immersion is that deep, complete and inseparable. For those, what we might clearly discern between in our lives, they might not. There's less need, if any, for the true artist.
As far as that goes, most would agree that absolutes and superlatives are thrown around a bit too much these days in the promotion game. So when a deserving artist is monikered/burdened with the same or similar terms, they have all the impact of the well jaded, Pavlovian response, "yeah, right". The Peter and the Wolf' syndrome: been there, done that.
Well, there are still a few artists out there who've actually earned the hype to the point where its not hype or promise...its prompt, delivered goods. In the case of Josh Redman, accolades like "brilliant" and "tenor of our time" really actually fit. It's said time is of the essence and timing is everything and if he's got anything its surely that.
Oddly enough, Redman originally planned to study Law at Yale and instead received a BA in Social Science from Harvard. After winning the Thelonius Monk competition he was virtually thrust into the spotlight without the benefit of having been a sideman, aside from working with his father group. His influences are eclectic and include the standard Wayne, 'Trane, Sonny and Joe Henderson but also the indigenous musics of more countries than you can shake a stick at, Stevie Wonder, and of course his dad, tenor saxist, Dewey.
When has an instrumentalist last sprung on the scene turning heads with such a unique, expansive, visionary voice, yet reverence for the past and a mission for bringing it into the present with still more promise for the future with each sonorous note from his instrument as Redman? I'm still thinking myself. Sure, names like Miles, Shorter and Trane are sure to spring to mind, but as far as Redman's chronologic peers it's pretty limited. There's Brad Mehldau, Brian Blade, Larry Grenadier, Chris McBride, Branford Marsalis and a few others (all whom have worked with Redman). Then there's the next level/generation...the Herbies, McCoys, Methenys, etc all of whom Redman's also worked with.
Redman completed a 9-date tour in February of clubs in Charlottesville, Cleveland, Indianapolis and Minneapolis as a trio with Brian Blade on drums and Sam Yahel on keyboards that featured new music just released June 10th as 'YaYa3' (on Loma records). His new Warner Bros. album, 'Elastic' with 'Joshua Redman's Elastic Band' (no kidding - sorry Bootsie) is scheduled for a Fall release. Passage of Time is his eighth solo album and the group's latest release.
Redman also performed April 7th in San Francisco as a quartet backed by Bill Frisell, Brian Blade and Larry Grenadier. They'll also be at the Atlanta Jazz Fest May 25th and have scheduled festivals through September. Check Redman's website for current updates - www.joshuaredman.com.
Here's the result of a what was very enlightening conversation...
AAJ: How was the tour?
JR: Long. We basically toured from the time our record came out at the end of April and we toured pretty consistently from then until, basically, Labor Day. And we've done a few gigs on and off since then and we have a tour coming up. That was a long stretch of time.
AAJ: Yeah, for sure. I saw you at that gig in Austin this summer. Great gig and really nice meeting you, too.
JR: Oh yeah, right!
AAJ: Real small club...Continental Club.
JR: Yeah, that was a fun club.
AAJ: Yeah, I really didn't expect to see you to be in such a small venue.
JR: Yeah. It was great. We had an awesome time there. Unfortunately I would love
to do small gigs like that more often but economically it's not really feasible, but every once in a while. That was great fun. The Hotel San Jose right across the street was awesome.
AAJ: Oh yeah. That place is awesome. Do you find that something gets lost between a small venue like that and taking it to a large, open festival stage?
JR: I'll tell you something. Something is lost but something is also gained. Acoustic jazz, even though we use microphones for some sort of amplification, its a music which essentially is relying on acoustic sounds as opposed to rock music which
is great but which relies on processed sounds and amplified signals and electric sounds. And also there's an incredible amount of subtlety and interaction in Jazz and that's a lot of times where the real beat of the music lies. And I think sometimes the more amplification and the larger the venue the harder it is for the people to really hear the sometimes see that. So some of the essence of the music is lost or some of the detail which provides a lot of the meat of the music. But there's also the incredible experience of performing to a lot of people and this great sense of community when you're performing in a large concert hall or in an outdoor festival.
And, you know, it's less intimate but its grander and its potentially more exciting and sometimes more intense in a certain way. So, basically, one of the things I've enjoyed most about being a Jazz musician and about the way my career has developed is that I've been able to play all different sorts of venues for all different numbers of people. And I enjoy that diversity of performance experience.
AAJ: There's a Saturday Night Live episode where you performed with Jewel...
JR: With Jewel, yeah. Actually, Don Was was the musical director. There are a
lot of SNL's that they rerun and that one seems to be one that gets rerun all the time. People keep telling me: "I just saw you one Saturday Night Live with Jewel... she looks so much younger", (laughs) but it was about five years ago. That was fun. I've been fortunate as a Jazz musician I've been able to play with a lot of people outside of Jazz, a lot of great artists outside of Jazz, and I've enjoyed that and gotten a lot from that because I love all kinds of music. Jazz is my first love but I grew up with all kinds of music, you know, and if the music is quality and the artist's compelling and they have a strength and a vision and a soul then I get something from it...they get something from me.
AAJ: Right. That eclecticism really seems to work for you.
JR: Yeah. It's kind of who I am, for better or for worse. I can't deny it.
AAJ: Right. But not to the point of being a chameleon, per se.
JR: No. One of my goals has always been to be able play in many, many different styles without losing my sense of self. And in fact to develop that, hopefully, originality and identity to a greater and greater degree. And I feel that that's one thing I have. When I first started out I was always eclectic. I always felt comfortable playing a lot of different styles. I think, looking back on it, there was a more chameleon-like aspect to it, but I can play in one style and I can play in another and hopefully sound convincing but not necessarily have that sense of identity that comes through. And I think naturally that's developed the older I've gotten. The more I play, the more I have that. It cuts across the different stylistic boundaries.
AAJ: There seems to be a real open-mindedness and a sense of truth in your music...
JR: You know, I can't imagine it being any other way. For me, music is about playing what you feel in the moment. And that's probably why I love Jazz so much, because Jazz is a music which, perhaps more than any other form of music, is based on expression in the moment because its based on improvisation. People talk about this being a Postmodern age and absolute truth and everything is relative, you know, and I think that has some merit but there is always truth in the moment.
Truth of what you're thinking and what you're feeling, and that's what I try to get across, but also in all types of music.
AAJ: Can you discuss "Wish" and working with Metheny, Haden and Higgins - all Ornette alumni?
JR: Right, and all of whom have had strong connections with my father (tenor saxist, Dewey Redman). And actually at that time I had just finished playing with my father a lot in his band, from '91 until the middle of '92. It was a special connection in a lot of ways.
AAJ: So how did that collaboration come about?
JR: It was like the title of the record. It was a wish list. I mean I thought about different musicians that I would want to play with at that time. You know, that was actually supposed to be my first record. It didn't end up being my first record. What happened was, I did two sessions in a couple of weeks of each other. One was with a group of my peers and the other was with a group of master musicians and originally I thought they were going to be a part of the same record, you know, like a half and half thing. But they both came out so strong and also so different that I decided to make them two separate records. So when I was thinking about the masters to play with, I thought about all different sorts of combinations, but there was something about this one. I was attracted to that one the most and I felt the connection on many levels, one that would potentially work and one that hadn't been tried a lot. They, as far as I knew had played together on one record, which was Pat Metheny's "Rejoicing" record. My favorite Pat record. And they were all into it and beyond the usual brilliance, there was an incredible sense of connection, personal connection between the three of them and also they made me feel so personal and comfortable.
AAJ: Your dad played tenor on Pat's "80/81" record. When did you first hear it and
what was your response?
JR: I heard it probably shortly after it came out. I was about eleven or twelve.
AAJ: But you didn't grow up with your dad...
JR: I didn't grow up with my dad. I also remember seeing, actually, that tour.
They brought that band to the Keystone Corner in San Francisco, so that was one of the early live performances that I remember going to. I really dug it but I have to admit it was one of those records that I came to love more and more over time. At the time...a lot of it was maybe a little over my head and stylistically it wasn't quite my taste, at the time. But the more I listen to it, the more I feel like that's a great record. Definitely one of Pat's greatest records and also some of my dad's best playing and definitely some of Michael Brecker's best playing. He's great on everything, but that - there's really something special...there's a soulfulness in his playing...an honesty and a rawness that really comes across.
AAJ: Well, he's actually commented on that record, saying that Pat kind of thrust him in a situation he'd never really played in...
JR: Right.
AAJ: That kind of real open, (high energy) folk kind of strumming, free blowing and all. 'Cause he'd done so many studio gigs (and jazz dates) up to that point and that's a whole different mindset.
JR: Right.
AAJ: How do you go about composing? Did you study counterpoint or anything?
JR: No. I'm pretty unschooled as a musician. As a saxophonist I never took any private lessons or anything, or not for a long period of time. But as a composer I'm
totally unschooled. I've never taken a composition course. I basically just sit down at the piano or keyboard and things will come to me. One thing that I've never been able to do is say, "Ok, I'm going to write a song", and start writing. You know, the inspiration just has to come. And for a while I thought that that was beautiful, that's the way it should be, and that is what it should be, but it also is a bit of a liability
because a lot of times inspiration doesn't come and sometimes when it does I'm not in a position to capture it, you know? (laughs). But that's basically the way all my songs have come...through hearing something, some kind of kernel - musical idea
that comes to me and forms the basis for a song and it's never something I can force and it's also never something that can come from a theoretical standpoint....
AAJ: Right. Performance wise, you've developed your own vernacular and mutual
communication between the players. It's very evident. How do you get to that point and can you describe the experience of bringing a new piece of music to life in the studio and stage and expressing to the band what you're after?
JR: I don't see it so much as getting to a point as it is a process, you know, as an adventure. I mean, to me, playing in a band is the experience of collectively - in jazz - collectively embracing the unknown and the unknown in the moment. Kind of collectively saying, you know, accepting that we're here together to make music but we don't have an agenda. And we're going to discover something individually, but also as a group, and try to make something out of that collectively. And really what it comes down to is listening and being open and listening to one another and allowing the music to form in a very organic and natural way. And that's just always been my approach in bands and the more I've done it the stronger it's gotten. And I always feel that's always been one of the strengths of my band and especially the past band, which I've been with for a couple of years. Not just the strength of the individual voices but that sense of interaction.
AAJ: Can you discuss what the current band members from "Passage of Time", those guys, are bringing to the music, and the process of recording the last two records
JR: You know, I think what they bring - obviously they're great individual musicians - greatest young musicians ...they bring a sense of openness (mature?) and commitment, you know, commitment to playing with me and the band and commitment to this idea of search, of collective search. And they're great listeners, you know, and that's what it's all about.
AAJ: Absolutely. How would you differentiate working with these guys as opposed to past sidemen: like Blade, Mehldau and Grenadier?
JR: Everybody's different. I'm hesitant to compare individuals. The band I had with Brad Mehldau and Brian Blade was an incredible band. We had an incredible connection, as well. It's hard to compare. Music sounds different because different musicians might make it at a different point and a different time. I have no idea what it would sound like now with Brad and I got together. It was absolutely amazing. It would sound much different from it did when we first started playing together.
AAJ: Do you think you'll work with Pat again sometime?
JR: I would think so. I would love to and I think it's just a matter of time before we collaborate.
AAJ: I'm sure you hear that all the time (laughs).
JR: I'm glad! Because people dug it, you know? And I dug it.
AAJ: For sure. You've done some side work with Paul Motian and some others. Are there some others that people wouldn't readily know about or some things that are upcoming that would be interesting that you might want to talk about?
JR: I think I've been on about 50 last time I counted...You know there's a lot of records that I've been on...a couple of years ago I got to work with McCoy Tyner.
And I've had a chance to play, a few times recently, with Herbie Hancock, which
was amazing.
AAJ: So you're open to doing projects like that?
JR: Definitely, definitely.
AAJ: Can you talk about your experience doing Robert Altman's "Kansas City"?
JR: It was a great experience. It was the first time I've ever really been in a film.
AAJ: Was that comfortable for you?
JR: Yeah, it was comfortable because Altman just wanted us to play music. You know, I've never really had any aspirations to be an actor and I definitely didn't have any acting in that. But it was great. Great to play with all those great musicians and it was a challenge for us to try to, basically, recreate the feeling and energy and the spirit of the time and a lot of us had never experienced directly. We had only experienced through listening to the music on recording, you know. It was a great experience but not something that I would want to do every day. I mean, ultimately, we were being asked to play in the style of another time. It was a great challenge and it was a lot of fun but it was not, to me, ultimately, it's not what being a jazz musician is about. After the movie came out and they had a soundtrack they actually put together a band, a Kansas City band to tour. And I actually declined to do that.
...I didn't want to do it night after night after night.
AAJ: Right. How would you describe your overall philosophy of music and a musician's life today...thoughts on that?
JR: Wow. That's a short question.
AAJ: (laughs) Yeah, isn't it?
JR: Actually, my philosophy is to try to express what I feel as honestly and as creatively as possible. To try to tell a story and to try to find ways of expressing myself and challenge myself. for me, as a jazz musician, it's more about the
process than it is about the result or the goal. I mean, obviously I want to create great music, you know, and I mean I care very much about the product, but ultimately jazz is a temporal art. It's all about that sense of interaction and adventure and open to being in the present. And for me, as time goes on, I just want to have those experiences and to develop as a musician and find more creative ways of expression.
AAJ: Does the band tend to have input as far as material you do or how you do it:
arrangements?
JR: You know, when I bring music in to the band I don't really have much to say about it. I mean, hopefully the composition has a certain center; a certain soul that
kind of speaks for itself and it creates a certain vibe and a certain mood. But what the musicians do with it, that's the real excitement of the music, and how that music grows over time. We don't play the songs, half the time, the same way now that we did when we first formed the quartet. It's always evolving and I generally feel like: if I trust the musicians in the band, which I do, very little is said, you know? We find ourselves playing the music not talking about it or having a big discussion about it...that takes away from it.
AAJ: Sure. I guess there's different ways of working....depending on who you are.
JR: Yeah, yeah. Different people have different attitudes...in the band and towards the bandleader. You know, most of the music that we play, I bring in, I write, and we play some of Aarons' (Goldberg) music, the pianist, so most of the music is mine in the sense that the broad outlines are mine.
AAJ: Thanks, Josh and all the best to you...
For tour, bio and current album info visit - www.joshuaredman.com
Mike Brannon is guitarist/writer for the Synergy Group
(www.cdbaby.com/synergy). Their latest release is "Barcodes" w/ members of
King Crimson and Grammy-winning Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. The followup,
"Later", w/ special guests, Harvie Swartz, Paul Wertico and others will be
released in late 2002.
