Joshua Redman [Freedom In The Groove]What a truly funky album this is, rather than mere BeBop, Redman takes Jazz music into an R&B flavour, ideas abound which make this album bubble with funk, truly as the title says, he uses acres of freedom to groove.
Joshua Redman is now in his forties, and he never stays still, always experimenting with new line-ups and personnel, i guess a bit like Miles Davis did.
The booklet shots are clever, by Dana Lixenberg, who's an incredible Photographer, the notes by Redman himself could be a great introduction to the 'Bible of Music', he endorses the same musical aesthetic i do, that you should listen to music over the whole spectrum of genres, it's all music, never stunt your ears by denying yourself cross-fertilization with every form of music.
On this listening i really enjoyed tracks 1, 6, 8 & 10, i suppose i liked track 8 'Cat Battles' the most, Sax and Guitar [Peter Bernstein] get us into the groove right away, they're a great partnership, and their sound is nice and flexible, they start off as a duet [0:00-0:30], then they start weaving in and out of each other [0:31-1:13], the Pianist Peter Martin has a great solo [1:14-2:29], developing a lovely intensity, Redman's own solo is a slight touch straightforward, the group reprise the opening theme [4:21-5:37], and it's a nice moment to hear that groovy tune again, the whole thing comes to an abrupt halt, very nice indeed, you can easily dance to this album.
Here's a Quintet playing 'Cat Battles' on YouTube, very faithful to the original.
Blogs = 100 Greatest Jazz Albums.
