Jazz Articles about Freddie Redd

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Freddie Redd: With Due Respect

by Chris Mosey
June 23, 2016

Freddie Redd is one of the last living links to the golden age of modern jazz. He started playing the piano after hearing Charlie Parker in the 1940s and made his mark on the scene in 1959 with his score for Jack Gelber's avant-garde play “The Connection." This told the story of a group of junkies, most of them jazz musicians, waiting for their man. When he arrives, everyone shoots up and one of the company dies ...

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Freddie Redd Quartet: The Music from The Connection

by Eddie Becton
December 2, 2005

Curtis Mayfield is often remembered for penning the popular theme “Freddie's Dead." The irony of this title echoes sentiments of out-of-the-loop jazzers who thought iconic Blue Note pianist Freddie Redd made the passage. Redd, the lyrical comrade of Horace Silver and disciple of Bud Powell, is still very much alive and well, performing more regularly in Los Angeles.

The Music from The Connection reflects the turmoil, redemption, and salvation of its characters. The Connection was actually a 1959 play, and ...

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Freddie Redd Reconnects

by Rex Butters
August 10, 2005

At the second annual Jazz Journalists Association award show at the Jazz Bakery, West Coast Edition, a small dapper man sits watching in the back. After an energy bath by the Vinny Golia Quintet, he strolls to the stage and without waiting for an introduction, Blue Note legend Freddie Redd beams a radiant smile beneath a stylish fedora, leading his trio of Nedra Wheeler and Bill Madison through joyous jazz scripture from the church of bebop. Their irresistibly elegant swing ...

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Freddie Redd: Redd's Blues

by Keiran Smalley
January 19, 2003

Many times in the history of jazz, album titles have played word games with artists' names. Think of Grant Green and Green Street and Green is Beautiful. There is also Freddie Hubbard, with Ready for Freddie, Hub-Tones, and Hub-Cap. You may not have heard of the bop-pianist Freddie Redd, who not to be left out, made Shades of Redd and Redd’s Blues. The latter album, recorded in 1961, has been released now for the first time as part of Blue ...