Joshua Redman
Encyclopedia
Joshua Redman is an American jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 saxophonist
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

 and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 who records for Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...

. He won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition
Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz
The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is a non-profit music education-oriented organization co-founded in 1986 by the family of the late American jazz musician Thelonious Monk, opera singer Maria Fisher and Thomas R...

 in 1991.

Biography

Redman, who is both African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 and Jewish American, was born in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

, to jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman
Dewey Redman
Dewey Redman was an American jazz saxophonist, known for performing free jazz as a bandleader, and with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett....

 and dancer Renee Shedroff. He was exposed to many kinds of music at the Center for World Music in Berkeley, where his mother studied South Indian dance. Some of his earliest lessons in music and improvisation were on recorder with gamelan
Gamelan
A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included....

 player Jody Diamond
Jody Diamond
Jody Diamond is an American composer, performer, writer, publisher, editor, and educator. She specializes in traditional and new music for Indonesian gamelan and is active internationally as a scholar, performer, and publisher.-Biography:She received a B.A. from the University of California,...

. He was exposed at an early age to a variety of musics (jazz, classical, rock, soul, Indian, Indonesian, Middle-Eastern, African) and instruments (recorder, piano, guitar, gatham, gamelan), and began playing clarinet at age nine before switching to what became his primary instrument, the tenor saxophone, one year later. The early influences of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cannonball Adderley and his father, Dewey Redman, as well as the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Earth, Wind and Fire, Prince, the Police and Led Zeppelin drew Joshua more deeply into music.

He graduated from Berkeley High School, class of 1986, after having been a part of the award-winning Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble for all 4 years of high school.

In 1991, he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Social Studies
Committee on Degrees in Social Studies
At Harvard University the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies is the committee that runs the honors-only, interdisciplinary concentration in social science subjects for undergraduate students...

 from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa Society
Phi Beta Kappa Society
The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an academic honor society. Its mission is to "celebrate and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences"; and induct "the most outstanding students of arts and sciences at America’s leading colleges and universities." Founded at The College of William and...

. He had already been accepted by Yale Law School, but deferred entrance for what he believed was only going to be one year. Some of his friends (former students at the Berklee College of Music whom Joshua had met while in Boston) had recently relocated to Brooklyn, and they were looking for another housemate to help with the rent. Redman accepted their invitation to move in, and almost immediately he found himself immersed in the New York jazz scene. He began jamming and gigging regularly with some of the leading jazz musicians of his generation: Peter Bernstein, Larry Goldings, Kevin Hays, Roy Hargrove, Geoff Keezer, Leon Parker, Jorge Rossy and Mark Turner (to name just a few).

Redman won the Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...

 International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 1991, and began focusing on his musical career. Now fully committed to a life in music, Redman was quickly signed by Warner Bros. Records and issued his first, self-titled album in the spring of 1993, which subsequently earned Redman his first Grammy nomination. Redman continued to develop his style throughout the 1990s, beginning with a sideman
Sideman
A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he or she is not a regular member. They often tour with solo acts as well as bands and jazz ensembles. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different styles of music, and so able to fit...

 appearance on Elvin Jones
Elvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....

' Youngblood alongside Javon Jackson
Javon Jackson
Javon Jackson is an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He played in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers from 1987 until Blakey's death in 1990, and has also played with the Harper Brothers, Benny Green, Freddie Hubbard and Elvin Jones...

 (recorded at the Van Gelder Studio
Van Gelder Studio
The Van Gelder Studio is a recording studio located at 445 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. It was set up in 1959 by Rudy Van Gelder and has been used to record many albums released by major jazz labels such as Verve Records, Blue Note, Prestige and CTI Records.-Background:After having...

 in April 1991), and following up with an appearance on his father Dewey's 1992 record Choices. On his second album as a leader, Wish, he was joined by a notable lineup consisting of guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

ist Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...

, bassist
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 Charlie Haden
Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman...

, and drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...

 Billy Higgins
Billy Higgins
Billy Higgins was an American jazz drummer. He played mainly free jazz and hard bop.Higgins was born in Los Angeles, California. Higgins played on Ornette Coleman's first records, beginning in 1958...

; he would later tour this album as The Joshua Redman Quartet, featuring Christian McBride
Christian McBride
Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors...

 in place of Charlie Haden. He continued to work with various quartets, including one with pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

 Brad Mehldau
Brad Mehldau
Brad Mehldau is an American jazz pianist. Besides leading his own group, the Brad Mehldau Trio, he has performed with many renowned artists, including Pat Metheny, Wayne Shorter, Larry Grenadier, Peter Bernstein, Jeff Ballard, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Michael Brecker, Chris Potter, Kurt...

 until forming a new trio, Elastic, with keyboardist Sam Yahel and drummer Brian Blade
Brian Blade
Brian Blade in Shreveport, Louisiana is an American jazz drummer, composer, session musician, and singer-songwriter.-Early years:...

. The trio debuted under the moniker Yaya3, producing one album under this name. The same group of musicians made up the core on Redman's Elastic album, before becoming known as the Joshua Redman Elastic Band. Some of his works were featured on The Weather Channel's Local On The 8s.

In 1994, Redman appeared on the Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization is a not-for-profit, 501 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilation albums, related television programs and media events to raise...

's compilation CD, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool, appearing on a track titled "The Scream" along side Us3
US3
Us3 is a jazz-rap group founded in London in 1991. Their name was inspired by a Horace Parlan recording produced by Alfred Lion, the founder of Blue Note Records. On their debut album, Hand on the Torch, Us3 used samples from the Blue Note Records catalogue, all originally produced by...

 and Tony Remy. The album was named "Album of the Year" by Time Magazine. He also appeared as a member of the "Louisiana Gator Boys" in the 1998 film Blues Brothers 2000.

In 2000, Redman was named Artistic Director for the Spring Season of the non-profit jazz-presenting organization SFJAZZ. Redman and SFJAZZ Executive Director Randall Kline had an idea that The New York Times called a “eureka moment”; the creation of the SFJAZZ Collective, an ensemble distinguished both by the creativity of its members and a unique primary emphasis on composition. Inaugurated in 2004, the eight-piece band consists of a multi-generational cast of accomplished musicians. The Collective’s repertoire features both commissioned works and new arrangements of the work of great modern jazz composers. In March 2007, Redman announced that he was taking a hiatus from both the SFJAZZ Artistic Directorship and the SFJAZZ Collective in order to focus on new projects.

Redman has made a guest appearance on an episode of the TV show Arthur
Arthur (TV series)
Arthur is an American/Canadian animated educational television series for children, created by Cookie Jar Group and WGBH for the Public Broadcasting Service...

as the uncle of Francine, one of the main characters. The episode also depicts him in a boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 match against classic cellist Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...

. He also appeared on Reading Rainbow
Reading Rainbow
Reading Rainbow is an American children's television series aired by PBS from June 6, 1983 until November 10, 2006 that encouraged reading among children. The award-winning public television series garnered over 200 broadcast awards, including scores of Emmy Awards, many for "Outstanding Children's...

, episode 127 "Hip-Cat", in which Redman discussed with host LeVar Burton
LeVar Burton
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr. , professionally known as LeVar Burton, is an American actor, director, producer and author who first came to prominence portraying Kunta Kinte in the 1977 award-winning ABC television miniseries Roots, based on the novel by Alex Haley...

 the importance of music and how jazz had affected his life, which he followed with a live performance. Redman also performed on the soundtrack of the made for TV film "Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story" (1995).

Redman has also appeared on recordings and in live performances by Umphrey's McGee
Umphrey's McGee
Umphrey's McGee is an American progressive rock jam band based in Chicago whose music is often referred to as "progressive improvisation", or "improg" ....

.

In April 2007, Nonesuch released Redman’s first ever piano-less trio record, Back East, featuring Joshua alongside three bass and drum rhythm sections (Larry Grenadier & Ali Jackson, Christian McBride & Brian Blade, Reuben Rogers & Eric Harland) and three guest saxophonists (Chris Cheek, Joe Lovano and Dewey Redman). His January 2009 release, Compass, continues the trio tradition, and even includes some tracks with a double-trio set-up, featuring saxophone, two basses, and two drummers.

Starting in late 2009, Joshua Redman began performing with a new collaborative band called James Farm, featuring pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman, and drummer Eric Harland. They released their first album on April 26, 2011.

Redman was also an inaugural member of the Independent Music Awards'
The Independent Music Awards
The Independent Music Awards is an international program that honors top-ranked independent artists and releases in more than 50 Album, Song, Music Video and Design categories....

 judging panel to support independent artists.

As leader

> > > > > > > > > > > >
Title |Year of ReleaseLabel
Joshua Redman
Joshua Redman (album)
-Track listing:# "Blues on Sunday" # "Wish" # "Trinkle Tinkle" # "Echoes" # "I Got You " # "Body & Soul" # "Tribalism"...

1993  Warner Bros.
Wish
Wish (Joshua Redman album)
-Track listing:# "Turnaround" - 6:24# "Soul Dance" - 6:33# "Make Sure You're Sure" - 5:26# "The Deserving Many" - 5:40# "We Had a Sister" - 5:47...

1993 Warner Bros.
Moodswing
Moodswing (Joshua Redman album)
Moodswing is a 1994 album by jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman. All compositions on this album were original.-Track listing:# "Sweet Sorrow"# "Chill"# "Rejoice"# "Faith"# "Alone in the Morning"# "Mischief"# "Dialogue"# "The Oneness of Two "...

1994  Warner Bros.
Joshua Redman Captured Live 1994 Warner Bros.
Spirit of the Moment - Live at the Village Vanguard
Spirit of the Moment - Live at the Village Vanguard
Spirit of the Moment – Live at the Village Vanguard is a 1995 live album by jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman.-Track listing:# "Jig-a-Jug"# "My One and Only Love"# "Second Snow"# "Remember"# "Dialogue"# "St. Thomas"# "Herbs and Roots"...

1995  Warner Bros.
Freedom in the Groove
Freedom in the Groove
Freedom in the Groove is a 1996 album by jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman. All songs on the album were original compositions.-Track listing:# "Hide and Seek"# "One Shining Soul"# "Streams of Consciousness"# "When the Sun Comes Down"# "Home Fries...

1996  Warner Bros.
Timeless Tales for Changing Times
Timeless Tales for Changing Times
Timeless Tales for Changing Times is a 1998 album by jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman. Many of the tracks featured pay tribute to the composers listed in parenthesis.-Track listing:# "Summertime" # "Interlude 1"...

1998  Warner Bros.
Beyond 2000  Warner Bros.
Passage of Time
Passage of Time
Passage of Time is a 2001 album by jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman. In this album, Joshua Redman strings together 8 different original compositions into a continuous piece for the first time, with pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Gregory Hutchinson as partners in this...

2001  Warner Bros.
Elastic
Elastic (album)
Elastic is a 2002 album by jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman. All songs were original compositions.-Track listing:# "Molten Soul"# "Jazz Crimes"# "The Long Way Home"# "Oumou"# "Still Pushin' That Rock"# "Can a Good Thing Last Forever"# "Boogielastic"...

2002  Warner Bros.
Momentum
Momentum (Joshua Redman album)
Momentum is a 2005 album by jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman. All compositions are original works unless otherwise noted.-Track listing:# "Soundcheck"# "Sweet Nasty"# "Just a Moment"# "Shut Your Mouth"# "The Crunge"...

2005  Nonesuch
Back East
Back East
- Track listing :# "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" # "East of the Sun " # "Zarafah" # "Indian Song" # "I'm an Old Cowhand" # "Wagon Wheels"...

2007  Nonesuch
Compass 2009  Nonesuch

As sideman

With Jonny King
Jonny King
Jonny King is an American jazz pianist.Raised in New York City, King graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law School and has been an attorney at a copyright practice....

  • Notes from the Underground (1996, Enja Records
    Enja Records
    Enja Records is a German jazz record label based in Munich, Germany. It was founded by jazz enthusiasts Matthias Winckelmann and Horst Weber in 1971....

    )

With Joe Lovano
Joe Lovano
Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls...

  • Tenor Legacy
    Tenor Legacy
    Tenor Legacy is an album by the American jazz saxophonist Joe Lovano recorded in 1993 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4 stars stating "Lovano has created a set with a great deal of variety and some surprising moments".-Track...

    (Blue Note, 1993)

With Christian McBride
Christian McBride
Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors...

  • Gettin' To It (1993)

With Brad Mehldau
Brad Mehldau
Brad Mehldau is an American jazz pianist. Besides leading his own group, the Brad Mehldau Trio, he has performed with many renowned artists, including Pat Metheny, Wayne Shorter, Larry Grenadier, Peter Bernstein, Jeff Ballard, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Michael Brecker, Chris Potter, Kurt...

  • Highway Rider
    Highway Rider
    Highway Rider is a contemporary jazz album by American pianist Brad Mehldau. It was Mehldau's second collaboration with producer Jon Brion , and it features saxophonist Joshua Redman, drummer Matt Chamberlain, and Chamber orchestra led by Dan Coleman, as well as Mehldau's regular trio partners,...

    (2010, Nonesuch
    Nonesuch Records
    Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...

    )

With Paul Motian
Paul Motian
Stephen Paul Motian was an American jazz drummer, percussionist and composer of Armenian extraction.He first came to prominence in the late 1950s in the piano trio of Bill Evans, and later led several groups...

  • Paul Motian and the Electric Bebop Band
    Paul Motian and the Electric Bebop Band
    Paul Motian and the Electric Bebop Band is an album of bebop jazz standards by Paul Motian originally released on the German JMT label. Recorded in 1992, it was released in 1993 and features performances by Motian with Joshua Redman, Brad Schoeppach, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Stomu Takeishi...

    (JMT, 1993)

With Dewey Redman
Dewey Redman
Dewey Redman was an American jazz saxophonist, known for performing free jazz as a bandleader, and with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett....

  • Choices
    Choices (Dewey Redman album)
    Choices is an album by American jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman featuring performances recorded in 1992 for the Enja label. The album features the recording debut of Redman's son Joshua Redman.-Reception:...

    (Enja, 1992)
  • African Venus
    African Venus
    African Venus is an album by American jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman featuring performances recorded in 1992 and released on the Evidence label.-Reception:...

    (Evidence, 1992)

With Kurt Rosenwinkel
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Kurt Rosenwinkel is an American jazz guitarist and keyboardist who came to prominence in the 1990s.-Biography:He attended the Berklee School of Music for two and a half years before leaving in his junior year to tour with Gary Burton, the dean of the school at the time...

  • Deep Song
    Deep Song (album)
    Deep Song is Kurt Rosenwinkel's sixth album as a band leader.-Track listing:# "The Cloister" – 8:30# "Brooklyn Sometimes" – 8:22# "The Cross" – 7:35...

    (2005)

External links

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