saxophonist; jazz musician
Personal Information
Born Joshua Shedroff on February 1, 1969, in Berkeley, CA; son of Dewey Redman (a jazz saxophonist) and Renee Shedroff (an artists' model, dancer, and librarian); married, 1997.
Education: Harvard University, degree in urban studies, 1991.
Career
Saxophonist. Performed with Harvard University's jazz band and participated in informal jam sessions in the Boston Brothers, 1992; performed with President Bill Clinton on the White House lawn, 1993; toured with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, 1994; albums include: Joshua Redman, 1993; Wish, 1993; Mood Swing, 1994; Spirit of the Moment: Live at the Village Vanguard, 1995; Freedom in the Groove, 1996; Timeless Tales (For Changing Times), 1998; Beyond, 2000; Passage of Time, 2001.
Life's Work
When saxophonist Joshua Redman arrived on the jazz scene in 1991, he astounded listeners with a richness and technical precision, earning immediate accolades from critics and colleagues alike. Redman's music has consistently conveyed a sense of raw power. His approach is emotional, rather than intellectual. "Music doesn't come from music, music comes from life," he told Down Beat. "That means taking walks, hanging out, going to parties, reading, playing sports...the list is endless, right?" Redman's approach has helped bring jazz to a wider audience.
Redman was born Joshua Shedroff on February 1, 1969, in Berkeley, California. His father, Dewey Redman, was a jazz saxophonist who worked with jazz legend Ornette Coleman. His mother, Renee Shedroff, was the daughter of Eastern European Orthodox Jewish immigrants who worked as an amateur dancer and artists' model, but later became a librarian. The couple met in San Francisco during the mid-1960s and never married. Redman's father, who quit his job as a teacher in Texas to play jazz, moved east in 1967 with another woman, but Shedroff was intent on having a child with him. He was already working in New York with Coleman when his son was conceived during a visit from Shedroff. After Redman was born, his mother left her modeling job, surviving on welfare in a one-bedroom apartment in Berkeley, California. Although his father was not involved in his upbringing, Redman harbored no animosity. "I have a good relationship with my dad--it's just not a father-son relationship," he told New York. "It's more of a buddy relationship, a mentor-student relationship."
Redman's mother had a passion for music, which she passed on to her son. Indeed, Redman showed talent from a young age. When he was just two-and-a-half years old, his mother took him to a concert which featured an Indian instrument called the gamelan. When they returned home, Redman began mimicking the gamelan by lining up pots and pans according to the tones they produced. He had also learned to play the recorder and the clarinet.
Picked Up Sax at Age Ten
Thanks to a school program that loaned instruments to low-income students, Redman began learning the tenor saxophone when he was ten years old. Influenced by his mother's extensive record collection, which included Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, and Cannonball Adderly, he also went with his mother to see his father play in concert about once a year. However, Redman has noted that he did not take up the saxophone to emulate his father. However, Redman did take note of his father's relative obscurity in the music industry and decided at a young age that he would pursue other avenues. "I wanted to make sure that even if I ended up in music, I would never be forced to do something that runs counter to my artistic instincts in order to put food on the table," Redman explained in Down Beat.
In high school Redman was a soloist with Berkeley High School's prestigious Jazz Ensemble. He graduated as valedictorian of his class in 1986, and won a full scholarship to Harvard University. He considered becoming a doctor, but decided to major in urban studies, planning on a law career. "I was very interested in addressing the social problems of the city--poverty, racism, homelessness," Redman said in Down Beat. "I thought being a lawyer would give me the best background to make a difference."
Redman joined Harvard's jazz band and played gigs during his summers breaks. In 1989 he performed with his father at Manhattan's Village Vanguard. After graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1991, Redman passed his law school entrance exams, receiving a perfect score. He was accepted into the law schools of Harvard and Stanford as well as his first choice, Yale, but decided to take a year off in order to play music full-time.
Redman then moved to New York, renting a place with four friends in Brooklyn. Since he was now quite close to where his father lived, they began seeing each other regularly. They performed together and after about a year, released an album, Choices, for enja, a small label out of Europe. Previously known as Joshua Shedroff, the young musician changed his last name to Redman in order to avoid questions about why he did not have the same last name as his father.
Won Prestigious Competition
In 1991, after some prodding from his friends, he entered the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Instrumental Competition in Washington, D.C. The respected event, which offered a first prize of $10,000, was judged by Benny Carter, Branford Marsalis, Jackie McLean, Jimmy Heath, and Frank Wess. Redman competed and won with his renditions of Jerry Valentine's "Second Balcony Jump," the ballad "Soul Eyes" by Mal Waldron, and Monk's "Evidence." As Dan Ouellette put it in Down Beat, "He blew the rest of the saxophonists off the stage." Although Redman was initially skeptical of the idea of a competition--he felt music was too subjective to be ranked--he was pleased to have had the opportunity to showcase his talent. He remarked in the Washington Post that competitions are "great for the cause of jazz, because Americans love competition, and that hook will get the public interested in young musicians they might never listen to otherwise."
Winning the competition ignited Redman's career. As part of his first prize, he appeared as the featured performer at the Blues Alley club. He soon began receiving calls from luminaries like Pat Metheny and Charlie Haden and he was given the chance to work with musicians he respected. Record companies were soon scrambling to sign him. Redman signed with Warner Brothers in 1992. The following year, after just a four-hour recording session, his first album, Joshua Redman, was ready for release. The album contained six original tunes and some covers of classic hits, including "Body and Soul," "Salt Peanuts," and "I Got You (I Feel Good)."
Critics were amazed by his talent. Zan Stewart noted in Down Beat, "Listening to the album, you're grabbed by Redman's sound. It's rich, weighty, and deep. And this fellow makes the music move, creating heat and interest, be it on a sultry blues or a come-hither ballad." Gene Seymour of Newsday remarked that Joshua Redman "is simply the most startlingly assured debut album by a young jazz artist in memory." In Time David E. Thigpen commented, "It's been a long time since jazz produced a saxophonist with Redman's fearless improvisational skill and mature melodic sense." However, the album did also meet with somewhat less enthusiastic critics who claimed that Redman's style was a bit too reserved. The album received a Grammy Award nomination.
Jammed with President Clinton
With his first album generating so much positive feedback, other musicians wanted to work with Redman. He played with veteran traditionalists Milt Jackson and Joe Williams, while at the same time winning respect from eclectic players like Pat Metheny. He even performed on the White House lawn with Illinois Jacquet and President Bill Clinton in June of 1993. In August of that year, he appeared at a jam session at the Lincoln Center, outshining jazz greats like David Murray and George Coleman. Redman then toured with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in 1994. In the meantime, he won numerous awards, including being named Best New Artist by the Jazz Times in 1992, and named Hot Jazz Artist by Rolling Stone in 1993. He was also named Number One Tenor Saxophonist (talent deserving of wider recognition) in the Down Beat 1993 critics' poll.
Redman's second album, Wish, was released in September of 1993. Recorded live, the album featured an all-star lineup, including Pat Metheny on guitar, Charlie Haden on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. The foursome rehearsed for only a few hours before recording in order to capture the spontaneity that Redman valued. Wish sold more than 90,000 copies in the United States and won the Down Beat readers poll for Jazz Album of the Year in 1994. Redman also won Jazz Artist of the Year honors.
Still, some critics felt that Redman had not yet developed a distinctive style. However, this was not held against him, especially in light of the fact that his talent, not to mention his charisma and handsome features, seemed to attract more people to the world of jazz. Another facet that appealed to wider audiences was his use of popular songs, such as Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" and Stevie Wonder's "Make Sure You're Sure," remade as jazz tunes. Redman's next effort, Mood Swing (1994), captured even more listeners, selling 104,000 copies.
In 1995 he released another album, but not from the studio. The double-CD set, Spirit of the Moment: Live at the Village Vanguard, included originals and covers, and infused a bluesy feel that popularized Redman's music even more. He later commented in Down Beat, "People have found my music to be accessible, and that's been both a blessing and a curse.... Some have said that because my music is accessible, I must be compromising it-conforming it: to appeal to people. Implicitly that means it lacks substance.... I am who I am and I play the way I play, and the way I play has been and will be honest and from my soul.... To a lot of people, there's a natural opposition between great art and success. That's a dangerous mindset."
Appeared in Altman Film
As Redman's star rose, his reputation only blossomed. Britt Robson in the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote, that although "there are moments when Redman still can fall prey to crowd- pleasing gimmickry," he "deserves credit for refusing to rest on his laurels, showing constant improvement over the past four years. His trademark has become clipped phrases that are deftly strung together to create irresistibly swinging songs, brimming with tonal variation and creative turns." Redman appeared in director Robert Altman's 1996 film Kansas City, about the rise of the jazz scene there, as well as the criminal and political arenas, during the 1930s. In 1996 Redman released Freedom in the Groove, which also proved to be a fast-seller, and in 1998, he released Timeless Tales (For Changing Times). This collection boasted an interesting melange of pop tunes, including the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby," Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'," and other songs by artists ranging from Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hammerstein, to Prince, Joni Mitchell, and Stevie Wonder.
In 2000 Redman released his seventh album,Beyond, which featured all original compositions. For these compositions, Redman experimented with uneven time signatures and, in "The Last Rites of Rock 'n Roll," Redman launched into an Eastern-sounding solo which, according to Andrea Lewis in The Progressive, "may have listeners wondering if he's actually playing a saxophone." Although Redman enjoyed experimenting, he did not consider experimentation the most important aspect of music. "The value lies in the emotion--the soul and the spirit of the music." he told The Progressive. "The best grooves don't make you count. They just make you feel."
Passage of Time, an album which, according to Down Beat's John McDonough, had "ambition written all over it," was released in 2001. The album was presented as a continuous piece, intended to be digested whole, rather than track by track. However, Down Beat found this presentation far from ambitious, noting that, while the tracks were programmed continuously, the album was still essentially a series of pieces.
Redman was married in 1997 and moved to a New York City suburb. When asked what he thought the future of jazz might hold, he responded that he had no idea. "That's what makes it exciting," Redman told the Daily Telegraph. "If I knew what it was going to look like, I wouldn't be so excited to be a part of it. Jazz is a music of surprise; it's a music of spontaneity. I think jazz musicians live--I know I do--for being surprised and not knowing what's going to come next."
Awards
Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, first place, 1991; Jazz Times best new artist, 1992; Rolling Stone hot jazz artist 1993; Down Beat critics' poll, named Number One Tenor Saxophonist (talent deserving of wider recognition), 1993; Down Beat readers poll, Jazz Artist of the Year, 1994; Down Beat readers poll, Album of the Year, 1994, for Wish; Rolling Stone critics' poll, Best Jazz Artist, 1994 and 1995.
Works
Selected discography
- Joshua Redman, Warner Bros., 1993.
- Wish, Warner Bros., 1993.
- Mood Swing, Warner Bros., 1994.
- Spirit of the Moment: Live at the Village Vanguard, Warner Bros., 1995.
- Freedom in the Groove, Warner Bros., 1996.
- Timeless Tales (For Changing Times), Warner Bros., 1998.
- Beyond, Warner Bros., 2000.
- Passage of Time, Warner Bros., 2001.
Further Reading
Books
- Contemporary Musicians, Volume 25, Gale, 1999.
- Daily Telegraph, October 31, 1998, p. 8.
- Dallas Morning News, February 28, 1997, p. 30.
- Down Beat, June 1993, p. 26; December 1994, p. 28; January 1996, p. 10; May 1996, p. 16; January 1999, p. 24; June 2001, p. 65.
- Economist, January 22, 1994, p. 94.
- Entertainment Weekly, September 30, 1994, p. 59; September 15, 1995, p. 106.
- Essence, November 1994, p. 64.
- GQ, June 1994, p. 93.
- Los Angeles Times, November 1, 1997, p. F12.
- Newsday, April 1, 1993, p. 67; October 7, 1993, p. 84; September 14, 1994, p. B7.
- New York, January 24, 1994, p. 36.
- The Progressive, October 2000, p. 40.
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), May 7, 1995, p. 1F; February 7, 1996, p. 1E; February 8, 1996, p. 4B.
- Time, November 22, 1993, p. 76; November 30, 1998, p. 128.
- Toronto Star, October 8, 1998.
- Washington Post, December 3, 1993, p. N25.
- All Music Guide, http://www.allmusicguide.com (August 6, 2001).
- Yahoo! Music, http://musicfinder.yahoo.com (February 4, 1999).
— Geri Speace and Jennifer M. York
