The Basement
May 1
While this was a big success for presenters SIMA, it was a disappointment for me since I have often played tenor and soprano saxophonist Joshua Redman’s new CD Compass with deep pleasure. On some tracks of the latter, Redman (who is of course the late Dewey Redman’s son) used two bassists and two drummers. The bassists (Larry Grenadier and Reuben Rogers) often played in pretty much the same register, which seems odd yet it created some mysterious textures. Brian Blade and Gregory Hutchison were the drummers. The tunes were interesting, and were played at The Basement, and the unusual instrumentation helped direct the album towards atmosphere and texture rather than rip roaring virtuosity.
Which was what we got much of the time at The Basement, where Redman appeared with Rogers and Hutchison, who had played in the superb Aaron Goldberg Trio at the Sound Lounge last year. They are two of the finest players in America and the world and were not less than astounding live with Redman, but Redman opted in the main for a hey, let’s go, let’s get it on approach that promised more than it delivered, despite the excitement generated by the rhythm team. While Redman produced some original lines, and some jumping, popping slap tongue rhythmic figures, he also seemed to be running the fast lines for display. The language of flat out tenor playing can be exciting and satisfying (I still listen to Jamie Oehlers’s two discs made when he was an out and out bebopper) but it can also seem somewhat empty. The uncomfortably packed audience, many of them young, were certainly enthusiastic, if somewhat indiscriminate. They yipped and screamed at every damn thing, which made me feel like an old sour man. Maybe it was just me, but drummer James Cameron, while enjoying the rhythm players, also found Redman lame despite his energy.
The experience was saved for me by two ballads played at the end of the night. The first was the supremely beautiful East Of The Sun, played slowly in seven with lovely tone and phrasing. The second, equally beautiful tune was My Foolish Heart, and again Redman produced glorious tenor tones from deep down up through all the registers. I was moved. That there is a talent here is undeniable. Perhaps Redman was reading his audience very accurately. And then perhaps they were right and I simply failed to make connection