Joshua Redman Group feat. Gabrielle Cavassa – 7:00 PM
Joshua Redman is one of the most acclaimed and charismatic jazz artists to have emerged in the decade of the 1990s. The early influences of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cannonball Adderley, and his father, Dewey Redman, as well as The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Earth, Wind and Fire, Prince, The Police, and Led Zeppelin drew Redman more deeply into music. Although he loved playing the saxophone, academics were always his first priority, and he never seriously considered becoming a professional musician. After graduating from Harvard College with a B.A. in Social Studies, he had already been accepted by Yale Law School, but deferred entrance for what he believed was only going to be one year to join friends in Brooklyn. Redman almost immediately he found himself immersed in the New York jazz scene. In November 1991, five months after moving to New York, Redman was named the winner of the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition.
Redman now turns his attention to his latest project, Where Are We, which marks the first time that he has included a vocalist (Gabrielle Cavassa) on a record. Redman notes that “the surface concept of Where We Are is rather simple: each of the songs on the album is about, or at least makes reference to, a specific geographical location (city or state or region) in the United States: Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Streets of Philadelphia,’ Count Basie’s ‘Going To Chicago,’ Rodgers & Hart’s ‘Manhattan’ and John Coltrane’s ‘Alabama,’ etc., etc. So, on one level, this is an album ‘about’ America — at once a celebration and a critique. But it is also, to varying degrees, a ballads album, a standards album, an album of romantic longing, an album of social reflection, an album of melodic invention, an album of improvisational adventure, an album of mashups (stylistic and titular), perhaps even a tribute album of sorts.”
Joshua Redman Website
Sponsored by Debra & Rayvon Williams
(Ticket Includes 5% City of Santa Cruz Admission Tax)