Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Joshua Redman Trio

I saw Joshua Redman perform with his trio on Sunday, and it was such an amazing experience. He kicked off his '10 tour with his pianoless trio featuring Reuben Rogers on bass, Greg Hutchinson on drums, and Redman on tenor and soprano saxes with a concert at my school. His latest album, Compass, actually featured a pianoless double trio with Brian Blades! (drums), and Larry Grenadier (bass), but I'm assuming scheduling conflicts or financial implications is preventing him from touring with his double trio. In any case, it was one of the greatest shows I've ever been to. It was a 1h30min show, and he played the set without intermissions, occasionally making witty remarks and general statements in between songs. He kicked off the set with a popular standard which I can't currently remember (brain freeze - update: Mack the knife), and ended the show with an encore performance of Thelonius Monk's Trinkle Tinkle. He played three songs from his latest album; 'Ghost'- a particularly haunting tune, 'Identity Thief'-the head featured a beautiful counterpoint interplay between the group, and finally 'Insomnomaniac-a fast paced and high energy composition with a sobering bridge, signifying crashes insomniacs experience coming off a lack of sleep high I suppose (and no that wasn't a typo; he made up the word because...well because he can). He played some of his compositions from the 90's which I am still in the process of getting familiar with. "..anyone remember the 90's,' he asked in a mocking voice that hinted dissatisfaction with his 90s work. The audience laughed...I didn't get it. Most of his 90s work were released to rave reviews,and he became a premiere jazz musicians over the 90s, but oh well. His encore performance is a one I sure will remember for ages. He came back for his encore performance, and rightfully observed that there's no jazz standard written about Washington D.C, pointing to NY (Autumn in New York), Paris (April in Paris) as examples of historic jazz cities that have one or more jazz standard associated with them.'...even Vermont got a song' he exclaimed referring to 'Moonlight in Vermont'. And just when you thought he was about to premiere a new piece dedicated to the capital city, he delivered his punchline..'I guess we'd have to just wait till someone comes along' he said to roaring laughter. He announced 'Trinkle tinkle' as his final song and started after a bit of comedic jostling with his tenor saxophone reed. His monophonic intro to the Monk standard was punctuated with sparse heavy staccato notes that started to sound like a muted guitar funk riff...it was unreal. His solo was all but a testament to his stamina and virtuosity. It was hair-raising. It was a fun concert overall, and the trio had great chemistry and developed a rare rapport with the audience. The whole night was a thrill night, but perhaps the high point came when Greg Hutchinson stopped in the middle of an intense backbeat oriented solo to remind the audience of a rather subtle fact about his technical display on drums…'by the way, all of this stuff is copyrighted’ he said to roaring laughter, and jumped back into the solo as if nothing had happened.

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