Joshua Redman - Come What May

Review Joshua Redman - Come What May

With Come What May, Joshua Redman makes the fans of his saxophone playing happy again after only a few months, i.e. within a short time, after his last year album Still Dreaming. This time he can be heard with his quartet Aaron Goldberg, piano, Reuben Rogers, bass and Gregory Hutchinson on drums, with whom he has been touring for 20 years, but the last time he released an album together with them was five years ago. The four musicians are perfectly attuned to each other through their long time together on stage, which allows them to approach most of the songs from Joshua Redman himself on Come What May in a relaxed manner. In addition, the quartet had these pieces in their touring baggage for years. So, they were ready to be recorded on an album before the pieces were sanded down by excessive routine. Joshua Redman sees it this way: "Sometimes you notice that a song, if you play it often, starts to crumble. You can miss the right time and that's exactly what I was wondering this time. The great thing about this band is that everyone knows how to make the music interesting and creative and keep the mood. So, in the end, the best songs on the album were the ones we played a lot."

The first track "Circle of Life" already makes clear where the journey on this album is heading: despite all the relaxation of making music, perfect ensemble performance usually subliminally conveys a huge potential of playful energy, which manifests itself in the three-quarter bar "Circle of Life" in dance-like swing. “How We Do" shows what an enormous, yet always controlled drive can be released by this energy potential. "Stagger Bear" demonstrates how lively blues can be brought to the people with a sophisticated change of time. Even more lively is the pressure from the drums on "DAGFD". The perfection of the playing and the art of improvisation of each band member, impresses from piece to piece, one last time in "Vast" with which the album first begins calmly, then ends from the pianist and saxophonist extensively and energetically improvised. On the subject of improvisation Joshua Redman says: "Improvisation is the bread and butter, the heart and soul of jazz, for me the most important thing. We open the songs and wait and see where the fun and thrill of creating new improvised melodies takes us. Nothing else is at stake". Of course, this requires band members who are equally tuned and competent, and not just a first-class tenor saxophonist who says: "I am dependent on them. I rely on them to find out how the music feels and sounds good. I can bring a song that I think is miserable and they will find a way to make a good song out of it. Whatever I bring, they make the best of it.”

There's no doubt about it: Everybody who stands on perfect jazz, emotionally charged and performed at the highest level, needs Come What May Come in his collection. An appropriately skillfully realized recording technique rounds off the pleasure of this album.

Joshua Redman, saxophone
Aaron Goldberg, piano
Reuben Rogers, bass
Gregory Hutchinson, drums

Joshua Redman - Come What May

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