Critics have called saxophonist/composer Rob Reddy “a versatile and adventurous saxophonist” (Scott Yanow, All Music Guide) and “an impressive and open-minded tunesmith” (Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com), noting that he “sounds, and dares to sound, like no one but himself” (Brian Morton, Jazz Review). “Since the early 1990s,” wrote Harry Newman in a recent feature article in Downtown Express, “Rob Reddy has been forging a way uniquely his own as a jazz composer, saxophone player and bandleader in New York.”
Since forming his first band in 1989, a trio featuring legendary bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Pheeroan akLaff, Reddy has worked almost exclusively as a leader, with the exception of brief stints with Workman's ensemble and Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society in the early 90's. For the rest of that decade, Reddy would helm a prototypical sextet called Rob Reddy's Honor System, documented on his first two recordings, 1996's Post-War Euphoria (Songlines Recordings) and 1999's Songs That You Can Trust (Koch Jazz).
Two other CDs, 2000's However Humble (Koch Jazz) and 2001's Seeing By The Light Of My Own Candle (Knitting Factory Records), would follow early in the new millennium, demonstrating Reddy's expanding palette, as well as a growing roster of notable collaborators, including bassist Dom Richards, drummer Guillermo E. Brown, violinist Charles Burnham, cellist Rufus Cappadocia, and trumpeter John Carlson among others.
“I never use composition as a vehicle for improvisation,” Reddy explains, “but rather I utilize improvisation as a tool to support the melodic material. My music is rooted in American folk forms (blues, gospel, country, Appalachian, marches and a wide range of jazz), and my recordings and working bands draw on a pool of musicians whose sounds and strengths become an essential part of presenting that music.”
In October 2006, he founded the Reddy Music label, and released his first recording in five years, A Hundred Jumping Devils, featuring a new sextet called Rob Reddy's Gift Horse, featuring Burnham, Richards, French hornist Mark Taylor, guitarist Brandon Ross and percussionist Mino Cinelu. The CD received critical praise and earned Reddy a commission from Chamber Music America to write new music for the band, which he will premiere in late 2007.
His second Reddy Music release, September 2007's The Book of the Storm, features an all-star 19-piece group he calls Rob Reddy's Small Town performing the hour-long title piece live at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center (TPAC) in March 2007. This impressive large- scale work was commissioned by the New York State Council on the Arts and the Jerome Foundation.
In the spring of 2007, Reddy expanded his label's presence by creating the Reddy Music Concert Series, a monthly series presenting double-bill concerts at Brooklyn's Jalopy Theater. Other upcoming projects include recording a new CD with his working quintet, unveiling a new ten- piece ensemble called Rob Reddy's Tenfold in October 2007, and a collaboration with choreographers Andrew Palermo and Taye Diggs to be premiered at TPAC in October 2008.
Since the early 1990s, Rob Reddy has been forging a way uniquely his own as
a jazz composer,
saxophone player and bandleader in New York.”
-Harry Newman, Downtown Express
“Reddy understands the link between rhythm and song as well as any younger
composer in the wake of
Henry Threadgill...”
-Leone Evangelista, AllAboutJazz.com
“...Reddy sounds, and dares to sound, like no one but himself.”
-Brian Morton, Jazz Review
“...Reddy has assembled a fine cast of players, each with an uncommon ability
to evoke a broad range
of images as they interpret these beautifully complex compositions.”
-Elliott Simon, AllAboutJazz-New York
“Released last year, A Hundred Jumping Devils projects a number of the
qualities that distinguish Mr.
Reddy's best music: stealthy propulsion, sturdy lyricism and a sound that
reconciles classical harmony
with folk rusticity. Mr. Reddy, who mainly plays soprano and alto, never
seems to run out of new ways
to bundle the timbres in his arsenal, which include Charlie Burnham's violin,
Brandon Ross's guitar and
Mark Taylor's French horn.”
-Nate Chinen, New York Times
“His new CD, which is called A Hundred Jumping Devils, is striking for a
couple of reasons. Firstly, it's
the unusual sound pallette he draws on with French horn, violin and congas
all in the mix, and secondly
it’s his approach to composition, taking in inspiration from a variety of
disparate sources: hymns,
processionals and sambas amongst them...a quite unusual mix of
instruments, influences and
sounds.”
-Jez Nelson, BBC 3's Jazz on 3
“...Rob Reddy has recorded another noteworthy addition to his discography as
he continues to explore
new themes, new textures and new rhythms...”
-Bill Donaldson, Cadence
“…Reddy and band perpetuate a wondrous, multihued palette of disparate
elements in concert with
ferocious interplay and fragile soundscapes.”
-Glenn Astarita, DownBeat
”Reddy draws on concepts and palettes of the AACM, way-post bop and
anything-goes downtown
movements, alluding to the mainstream in the course of embracing diverse
possibilities.”
-Howard Mandel, Jazziz
“…Reddy's is an adventure that benefits fans of any jazz era.”
-Andrew Bartlett, Amazon.com
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