Joshua Redman's Three Distances
Joshua Redman
Episode:That Feeling of Not Belonging Anywhere
1994: Joshua Redman blowing tenor in his own quartet. 1992: Redman as a young player alongside Elvin Jones. 2016: Redman alone with Brad Mehldau. These three tracks each place a different distance between Redman and the people around him. Center of a quartet, beside a legend, in dialogue with an old friend. As the distance changes, the tenor changes with it.
The tenor settles into the low part of its range, riding a loose groove. on piano, on bass, on drums. All in their 20s. Four people who would each go on to stand at the front of jazz, sounding here as one coherent body inside 's band. True to the title — relaxed but not loose. Over a repeating descending pattern in bass and piano, Redman's tenor walks slowly.
Two years before MoodSwing. is still nearly unknown, and he has been called into 's band. Elvin Jones was the drummer in John Coltrane's quartet — a person who is jazz history in human form. Playing tenor next to someone like that. A review said "Redman plays solos that travel back and forth between jazz's ancient past and its present." Nothing like the relaxed central figure on MoodSwing. There is a tension here of a young player next to a legend, proving in sound that he deserves to be there.
Twenty-two years after MoodSwing. and , who were both in their 20s then, now play standards together alone. Two of the quartet's four, remaining. Tenor and piano only. Every breath between notes is audible. That two people who spent 22 years walking separate roads can begin the same song at the same tempo — that itself proves the weight of the time they spent together in 1994.
