Time: 73:39
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2015
Styles: Jazz: Hard Bop
Art: Front
01. There'll Never Be Another You (7:17)
02. Blues For You (7:43)
03. How High The Moon (6:30)
04. All The Things You Are (10:39)
05. Cherokee ( 6:30)
06. Round About Midnight (7:33)
07. Perdido (8:45)
08. Lover Man (8:32)
09. I'll Remember April (10:05)
Survivors of the original hardbop era are an ever-dwindling fraternity, although attrition isn’t surprising for musical school that had its start well over a half-century ago. At 86, pianist Freddie Redd is still thankfully amongst that persistent number. He was a member of the New York jazz subculture in the Fifties that also included peers like Jackie McLean, Tina Brooks, Kenny Drew and others. An allergy to studio recording kept his discography comparatively slim, but his performance schedule remained healthy.
In 1959 Redd aligned with the city’s Living Theater Company, composing the music for and starring in both the stage production and film version of Jack Gelber’s influential play The Connection. He secured a record contract with Blue Note contemporaneously although only a third of his work for the label was released at the time. His last recording as a leader is nearly thirty years old. As such, Music For You wears its intentions simply and unequivocally as a gift to listeners both seasoned and nascent.
Recommended to producer Nils Winther at the behest of saxophonist Chris Byars, Redd lined up the session. Illness initially curtailed his participation and Stanley Cowell was called in to complete a session with the on-hand rhythm section of bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Billy Drummond in his absence. That music was released under Cowell’s name earlier this year. The session as originally planned is a different animal comprising eight standards that are all well-worn to the point of common currency. Only Redd’s “Blues For You” scripted specifically for the date deviates and it’s a fairly forthright example of its titular form.
Redd’s faculties are sharp and his mood congenial, but it’s clear from the debonair rendering of “There Will Never Be Another You” that he isn’t interested in placing himself or his sidemen through anything resembling a rigorous aggregate of challenges or paces. What then to recommend this date from an august veteran in his advanced age? The answer to that largely rhetorical question arrives in Redd’s measured and instantly ingratiating delivery. “Cherokee”, the perpetual steeplechase of bop tunes, unfolds at a tempo that’s more leisurely stroll than land speed sprint and in the offing is all the better for it. “Round Midnight” trades angular edges and overt melancholy for high melodicism against a gentle, subterranean bass throb and deft brush play before an eleventh hour flirtation with Latin rhythm.
There’s a quote in the liners that distills Redd’s creative philosophy down through colorful imagery: “I’m never going to play like Bud Powell. I could get all the plastic surgery in the world and drink anything I want, but it’s still going to come out Freddie Redd.” As applied in the liberal fashion the pianist favors it’s an approach indicative of resilient audience endearment and an affirmation that there’s much more than mere muscle memory happening here. ~Derek Taylor
In 1959 Redd aligned with the city’s Living Theater Company, composing the music for and starring in both the stage production and film version of Jack Gelber’s influential play The Connection. He secured a record contract with Blue Note contemporaneously although only a third of his work for the label was released at the time. His last recording as a leader is nearly thirty years old. As such, Music For You wears its intentions simply and unequivocally as a gift to listeners both seasoned and nascent.
Recommended to producer Nils Winther at the behest of saxophonist Chris Byars, Redd lined up the session. Illness initially curtailed his participation and Stanley Cowell was called in to complete a session with the on-hand rhythm section of bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Billy Drummond in his absence. That music was released under Cowell’s name earlier this year. The session as originally planned is a different animal comprising eight standards that are all well-worn to the point of common currency. Only Redd’s “Blues For You” scripted specifically for the date deviates and it’s a fairly forthright example of its titular form.
Redd’s faculties are sharp and his mood congenial, but it’s clear from the debonair rendering of “There Will Never Be Another You” that he isn’t interested in placing himself or his sidemen through anything resembling a rigorous aggregate of challenges or paces. What then to recommend this date from an august veteran in his advanced age? The answer to that largely rhetorical question arrives in Redd’s measured and instantly ingratiating delivery. “Cherokee”, the perpetual steeplechase of bop tunes, unfolds at a tempo that’s more leisurely stroll than land speed sprint and in the offing is all the better for it. “Round Midnight” trades angular edges and overt melancholy for high melodicism against a gentle, subterranean bass throb and deft brush play before an eleventh hour flirtation with Latin rhythm.
There’s a quote in the liners that distills Redd’s creative philosophy down through colorful imagery: “I’m never going to play like Bud Powell. I could get all the plastic surgery in the world and drink anything I want, but it’s still going to come out Freddie Redd.” As applied in the liberal fashion the pianist favors it’s an approach indicative of resilient audience endearment and an affirmation that there’s much more than mere muscle memory happening here. ~Derek Taylor
Music For You
