Joshua Redman

Joshua Redman

MY FAVORITE THINGS
Joshua Redman
Bursting onto the jazz scene in the early 1990's, saxophonist Joshua Redman was almost too good to be true. Barely out of his twenties, Redman was already a commanding, historically-aware saxophonist, armed with a Harvard education and star-power presence. Nearly a decade later -- with hit recordings and a series of his own striking ensembles behind him -- Redman has made good on his initial promise, his latest recording BEYOND offering undeniable proof. The saxophone colossus-in-training spoke with bn.com's Ted Panken about favorite sounds.

Barnes & Noble.com: Name me few composers, jazz or otherwise, who inspired you, and cite a particular recording by each of them if you can.

Joshua Redman: Wayne Shorter. Two reasons. One,his ability to utilize very, very advanced, at times abstract, harmonies in service of very-very strong identifiable melodies. His ability to incorporate sophistication and abstraction in a way that never loses or sacrifices emotional power and melodic strength. Not only was he able to reconcile abstraction with beauty, in a certain way, and abstraction with emotional power, but he also was able to reconcile the strength of a song with the need for improvisational inspiration. In other words, all of his songs are not only great songs, but they are songs that jazz improvisers want to play over. That's a real important function in jazz, I think. There are so many records. Obviously, SPEAK NO EVIL, JUJU, THE SOOTHSAYER. And Thelonious Monk. Because he wrote such great music! His ability to reconcile humor and a sense of play and a sense of fun with utter artistic seriousness and depth. No particular records.

BN: Anyone on the pop tip?

JR: Stevie Wonder.His music is incredibly compelling, and there's a purity and simplicity there, but he has this incredible harmonic sophistication that he brings to these very, very pure, beautiful pop songs. Also, just the sheer soul of his music. You can hear that on FULFILLINGNESS' FIRST FINALE or SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE.

BN: When you were in your early years, what records were a paradigm shift for you, that rocked your world as it were?

JR: John Coltrane's A LOVE SUPREME. I feel, in a certain sense, it's the record I was born to. Not literally, but that's one of the first records that I remember listening to. It was playing in the house from the time that I can remember music playing, and I feel that in a certain sense that music has been with me my whole life. Actually, along with A LOVE SUPREME, the Beatles' SGT. PEPPER was always there.

BN: Other jazz recordings?

JR: Ornette Coleman, the record he did called NEW YORK IS NOW. My father, Dewey Redman, is on that record with Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones. I've been listening to Ornette Coleman's music, once again, since the day I was born, and obviously I've always heard what made him incredibly unique. But it's funny, when I started to become more conscious of people's stylistic breakdowns of jazz, I'd always hear Ornette Coleman's music referred to as free and abstract and challenging and revolutionary. And I always heard freedom in it, and I always heard the unique identity in it, but to me there are aspects of his music that have always seemed incredibly easy to listen to and incredibly melodic, incredibly rooted. So it was kind of funny for me when people started to break down the differences between jazz styles and kind of put Ornette Coleman in this category of being outside, as opposed to, say, a Sonny Rollins, who was inside. It always struck me as kind of odd, because I felt like I've always heard... I've heard the freedom in his music, but I've also always heard this really kind of strong, compelling simplicity and visceral power in this music.

BN: What grabbed you when you started exploring music at an older age?

JR: Sonny Rollins' SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS. The way I came upon the record was I used to go to the public library in Berkeley to get records because I couldn't afford to buy them for myself. I was just leafing through the record bin, and I saw this record, SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS. I was like, "Man, that's a pretty presumptuous title, a pretty strong title; this shit better be good!" And it was! [lAUGHS] For me, not just Sonny Rollins as a great saxophonist, but Sonny Rollins, and that record in particular, completely opened my ears and my mind to the power and potential of improvisation. Because what Sonny Rollins made clear to me through that record was that it was possible to be completely spontaneous and completely in the moment, and at the same time to create this incredible sense of organic logic in an improvisation, and to do that purely in the moment.

Then MILES DAVIS AT THE PLUGGED NICKEL, the box set of that series of engagements, the live recordings, which I heard relatively late. The reason they were so seminal for me is that they really opened my ears and mind to the possibility for complete freedom, complete musical freedom within structure and within forms. That's been really important to me and very much informed a lot of the things I've tried to do as a bandleader. Everything by the quintet from that period, '65 to '68, but particularly those.

BN: How about rock and pop influences?

JR: I would say Led Zeppelin IV, the one with "Stairway To Heaven." I always dug their music. As far as Rock music goes, it's very interesting. It's gritty and it's hard-driving and it's bluesy, but it's also very, very sophisticated. What really struck me about that band was their attention to detail in creating songs for a record, from a compositional, arranging, texture, and sonic standpoint; they worked and worked to make each song as strong and as complete a statement as possible. They brought to me kind of an awareness of the potential of making a record and the potential of the studio to make a great record. Now, I can't say that that's really influenced me in making my records, because that's a very pop kind of philosophy, which doesn't apply to jazz.

I'd also have to say Prince. It's not just one record, but if I had to name one, probably the soundtrack to "Under The Cherry Moon," PARADE. What's always struck me about Prince beyond just the incredible type of musical brilliance and the caliber of musicianship and how interesting his music is, there's a certain audaciousness and a conviction in a personal vision from music. The fact that here is this guy -- this is also kind of related to Stevie Wonder, but with Prince it's even more in the fore -- who has such faith and conviction in what his personal musical vision is that he goes and creates not only a record, but a whole series of records that are all him. It's like every drop of music in those records comes from his brilliant but also kind of demented musical mind. I mean, he plays every instrument on all these records, basically. He arranges everything. He produces everything. It kind of appealed to the control freak in me! And the way in which a certain type of neurosis can be related to an incredibly powerful and compelling personal musical vision.

BN: What have you been listening to on the road and at home?

JR: `On the road: D'Angelo's new record, VOODOO. Guillermo Klein, LOS GAUCHOS on Sunnyside. THE SOUNDS OF INDIA, Ravi Shankar. Steve Coleman and Five Elements, THE SONIC LANGUAGE OF MYTH. Keith Jarrett, BELONGING. At home: Paul Motian Trio, TRIOISM. Mstislav Rostropovich, the Bach Cello Suites. Ornette Coleman Quartet, THIS IS OUR MUSIC. Kurt Rosenwinkel, THE ENEMIES OF ENERGY. That's it.