Joshua Redman: Words Fall Short

After extended tenures on Warner Brothers and Nonesuch Records, saxophonist/composer/bandleader Joshua Redman debuted on the Blue Note jazz label in 2023 with Where We Are. And while its successor, Words Fall Short, is right in line with that record by featuring vocals, it initiates a new phase in the leader's career by showcasing his new quartet in its recorded debut.

Formed as prelude to the world tour designed to support the previous effort, pianist Paul Cornish, bassist Philip Norris, and drummer Nazir Ebo coalesced with Redman in such short order, he opted to take the group into the studio and capture as much of the newfound chemistry as possible.

Not surprisingly, the unity is palpable throughout these renditions of eight new Redman originals. And that includes, with no little irony, the final cut that is titled "Era's End," with vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa reprising her appearance on the prior album to cement the continuity in Joshua Redman's body of work.

Her singing of the decidedly bittersweet lyrics, however, only hints at the burgeoning alterations in the career arc of Dewey Redman's son. The placement of that track as the conclusion to Words Fall Short supplies punctuation to the preceding statement(s) of purpose beginning with such thoughtful repose as "A Message To Unsend." Yet this opening number is not so much an invocation of the muse, but a group collection of thoughts. Cornish, Norris and Ebo circle around Redman exchanging ideas for elaboration and, in keeping with this LP's approximately forty-five-minute duration, the foursome does not belabor the brainstorming.

Instead, the ensemble welcomes saxophonist Melissa Aldana into the mix. She spars briefly with Redman before taking part in the remainder of a conversation titled "So It Goes;" with all the participants having their respective say in setting the group's instrumental course(s), this selection is hardly so contemplative as the playing in the early going here.

As such, it is only natural that a meeting of minds would lead without much interruption into the spunky title song. Seemingly over just as it begins—though it runs near five minutes like most tracks here—it is another instance of savvy track sequencing, standing as a deft and deliberate setup for the thoughtful "Borrowed Eyes."

All of the core four have a chance to expand the dialogue here, and especially sublime is the back and forth between tenor sax and piano at the denouement. That interval leads as if by destiny to "Icarus," where trumpeter Skylar Tang offers some provocative comments and, in doing so, helps ratchet up the intensity of the interplay to its highest point yet.

The cold stop suggests that the rapport within the Redman quartet is infectious indeed (though it might've been tested with more extensive stretching out, at least once, to fully affirm the bond). But, tricky time stops and all, these are hardly the grandstanding gestures in which players of lesser instincts would indulge. Rather, the keening sound of soprano sax on "Over The Jelly-Green Sea" is just one expression of lightheartedness arising from the joy of fluent spontaneity.

Juxtaposed with the delicate vocal elocution on the finale, those interludes remind display a scrupulous attention to detail that permeates Joshua Redman's Words Fall Short.