Dewey Redman
In London
(hear it)

Dewey Redman and Cameron Brown were key players in my official favorite show ever, Cameron Brown and the Hear and Now playing at the BimHuis in Amsterdam in November 1997. I believe they were playing a lot of Cameron Brown compositions, and they had Shirley Horn (or maybe Sheila Jordan? a great singer who used few words), David Ballou on trumpet, and I can't remember the drummer. The following day was Bill Frisell's duo with Joey Baron.

During the show, a family that seemed to be speaking German began making wild distractions. The "grandfather", as I've come to think of him, was shouting at odd times, the way people do at jazz shows. But other people shout "yeah!" or "go!" to encourage the performers - this guy shouted just kind of randomly "aaahh!" like he had dropped a plate on his foot. The "father" began walking down the middle aisle, during a break between numbers, singing "Imagination is Funny" tunelessly, and very loudly. They were all drinking heavily. The "son" was meanwhile rifling through peoples pockets in the coat closet in back - I saw him because I was trying to record the show (my tape machines sticky button was stuck on off, unfortunately) and I was nervously looking around for fear of getting caught. During intermission, I found them on the cusp of a beating. At the time, I thought that the father had caught him mid-rifling. I'm less naive now; I suppose the son had actually failed to steal anything, rendering the father's distraction fruitless.

I then drove my rental car to a rest area to sleep, and I think I may have foiled a man's rest-stop fantasy by not responding to him as he went from car to bathroom and back several times.

I really didn't know what to expect from this CD, Dewey Redman - In London. I got it because it has Cameron Brown on bass and is from October, 1996, one year before I saw them. I've always wanted to hear that show again, because Redman was doing these amazing saxophone runs like Bach violin music. Totally complicated yet harmonious - not the typical saxman gone mad that you hear in "jazz". But I have had mixed experiences with trying to find new recordings of awesome jazz musicians - this one Ernest Ranglin CD that just totally wasted my time comes to mind, and I was expecting much more from Ranglin after hearing his CD with Baaba Maal.

Also, I'm not a big fan of the Keith Jarrett quartet which featured Redman, for some reason - I guess it just didn't jibe with my preconceptions about Jarrett, and I think that might be one of the albums where Keith plays the soprano sax, which I'm not a big fan of him doing. Actually, I finally saw a Keith Jarrett solo concert, in Chicago in 2007, and my faith in his lasting contribution to music was somewhat shaken - maybe I shouldn't have made any conclusions about Dewey Redman based on his work back then.

This CD is terrific. It may be my new favorite jazz CD recorded after 1980. I love the way they combine classic jazz form with caterwaulingly intense improv. The pianist, Rita Marcotulli, has an extraordinarily wide pallette. Redman does some vocalizingly odd sax solos. A lot of new jazz, like Tim Berne's Screwgun stuff for example or Mats Gustafson's AALY trio, lays on the "wow", but lacks beauty.

I notice that this is a live album. I believe that live performance is a good time for breadth, and that studio recordings tend to be better suited to consistency. This is because people often listen to recordings with distractions, and need them to be relatively constant so that they can know what to expect when they start paying attention. Events, on the other hand, tend to be relatively distraction free, especially when alcohol is not offered. At a show, I think consistency from song to song is boring. A recording that requires the focus of a live performance needs to distinguish itself as such.

bb, 8 jan 08