Jazz Articles about SFJAZZ Collective

SFJazz Collective: Live 2007: 4th Annual Concert Tour

by J Hunter
October 1, 2007

After releasing the outstanding double-disc Live 2006: 3rd Annual Concert Tour (SFJazz Records, 2006), the SFJazz Collective could have pulled up their laurels and rested for a spell. Instead, the eight-piece super-band has punched out Live 2007: 4th Annual Concert Tour, another two-disc set that is a fine portrait of a group ably navigating transition.

Thelonious Monk gets the star treatment that Herbie Hancock received on 2006, with three significant differences.

First, while Hancock shared Miles Davis' exploratory ...

SF Jazz Collective: Live 2006: 3rd Annual Concert Tour

by J Hunter
February 25, 2007

You heard it in science class... for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That maxim works in many spheres outside the scientific, no more so than in jazz. So it was only a matter of time before there was an answer to Jazz at Lincoln Center's “strict-constructionist view of what jazz “is. Where better to shout that answer than San Francisco, where another musical revolution took hold forty years ago.

SFJazz--the Left Coast's leading nonprofit ...

SF Jazz Collective: SF Jazz Collective 2

by Paul Ryan
May 24, 2006

The SF Jazz Collective's second Nonesuch release focuses on the compositions of John Coltrane, with a few originals thrown into the mix. Despite the fact that this ensemble has so many “stars, its cohesiveness as a unit is palpable. No one seems to steal the spotlight, although certain musicians are featured on specific tunes.

Bobby Hutcherson's vibes take center stage on Coltrane's classic “Naima, after a beautifully voiced ensemble introduction. Hutcherson's intonation is impeccable and his technical prowess ...

SFJAZZ Collective: SFJAZZ Collective 2

by John Kelman
May 10, 2006

The SF Jazz Collective's 2004 inaugural season resulted in an eponymous live recording of reworked Ornette Coleman tunes and originals, SF Jazz Collective (Nonesuch, 2005). The second disc in the series, also part of an independently released multidisc set, offers further evidence of the new mainstream's potential for modernity and innovation through a special focus on the music of John Coltrane. It also demonstrates the continued growth of saxophonist/artistic director Joshua Redman, who has only recently begun to deliver on ...

SF Jazz Collective: SF Jazz Collective 2

by R. Emmet Sweeney
April 2, 2006

The SF Jazz Collective is a younger, more stylistically adventurous version of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, a repertory-minded super-group with a defined home base that tours at upscale theaters instead of clubs, aiming at middle-class pocketbooks. Both intend to educate as much as entertain, but SF Jazz, with Joshua Redman at the helm, manages to sound contemporary by emphasizing individual composition as much as repertory, while the LCJO routinely gets bogged down getting misty eyed about the past.

Each ...

SF Jazz Collective: The Inaugural Season Live 2004

by AAJ Staff
May 30, 2005

The SF Jazz Collective is an octet assembled by that former Young Lion and prize-winning saxophonist Joshua Redman, as part of his role as SF Jazz's Artistic Director. Each year, the Collective rehearses the music of a modern master selected by Redman, as well as original music from each band member. For their inaugural season, Redman chose Ornette Coleman. After three weeks of intensive rehearsal, the Collective went on tour, and the results were issued in this limited edition, three-CD ...

SFJazz Collective: SFJAZZ Collective

by John Kelman
May 23, 2005

Sometimes an artist receives too much exposure too early in his or her career. Case in point: saxophonist Joshua Redman, who became a leader too soon with his self-titled debut in '93. Granted he'd had some experience in the previous couple of years with father Dewey, as well as with drummer Paul Motian's Electric Bebop Band. But it seemed that things happened all too quickly; his second album, Wish, was an all-star affair with guitarist Pat Metheny, bassist Charlie Haden, ...