RoundAgain

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The members of the original Joshua Redman Quartet—Redman (saxophone), Brad Mehldau (piano), Christian McBride (bass), and Brian Blade (drums)—reunite with RoundAgain, the group’s first recording since 1994’s MoodSwing. The album features seven newly composed songs: three from Redman, two from Mehldau, and one each from McBride and Blade. "A flawless effort," exclaims NPR. "Each one of them is at the very top of his game now." Nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Instrumental Album and Best Improvised Jazz Solo (Redman) on the track "Moe Honk."

Description

The members of the original Joshua Redman Quartet—Redman (saxophone), Brad Mehldau (piano), Christian McBride (bass), and Brian Blade (drums)—reunite with the July 10, 2020 release of RoundAgain, the group’s first recording since 1994’s MoodSwing. The album features seven newly composed songs: three from Redman, two from Mehldau, and one each from McBride and Blade. "A flawless effort," excaims NPR. "Each one of them is at the very top of his game now." A live version of Redman’s “Right Back Round Again” may be seen below, in a video directed by Matthew Beighleyr.

Redman says of his first group as a bandleader, which was together for approximately a year and a half: “I realized almost immediately that this band wouldn’t stay together for very long. They were without a doubt, for our generation, among the most accomplished and innovative on their respective instruments. They were already all in such high demand—everyone wanted to play with them! And they all had such strong and charismatic musical personalities—destined to start soon pursuing their own independent visions. I knew better than anyone else just how incredibly lucky I was to have even that short time with them.” 

In the intervening decades, each has played with one or more of the others on various occasions, but all four had never properly reunited. “I knew it would happen, but I didn’t know when,” Redman admits. “We were all so busy, and we needed the space, both in our schedules and in our creative development.”

“We would have done it ten years ago if it were up to me,” Mehldau insists. “Josh, Christian, and Brian are all my heroes. It’s like playing with The Avengers.” 

Blade adds, “This band is like a turntable where the stylus was lifted but the turntable is still spinning. We just had to drop the needle, and there we were with all of the information we had gathered. It has gotten deeper because of life itself, and because Joshua, Brad, and Christian plumb the depths every day.” 

“These guys have grown exponentially,” McBride insists. “They are super-monsters now, and playing with them gave me a hard look at myself. And when you’re intimate creating art, even if you don’t play together for twenty years, you only need two bars to realize what the feeling is about, because the feeling never leaves."

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced by Joshua Redman
Recorded September 10-12, 2019 at Sear Sound Studio C, New York, NY
Associate Producer and Engineer: James Farber
Assistant Engineer: Owen Mulholland
Additional Engineering: Brian Montgomery
Mixed by James Farber October 25-26, 2019 at Sear Sound Studio A, New York, NY
Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, Edgewater, NJ

Design by John Gall
Photographs by Michael Wilson

ns_album_releasedate
Album Status
Artist Name
Joshua Redman
Brad Mehldau
Christian McBride
Brian Blade
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Joshua Redman, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
Brad Mehldau, piano
Christian McBride, bass
Brian Blade, drums

reissues?
new-release
Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
LP+MP3
Price
19.00
UPC
075597920994
Label
CD+MP3
Price
13.00
UPC
075597920987
Label
FLAC
Price
10.00
UPC
075597921014
Label
MP3
Price
9.00
UPC
075597921038

News & Reviews

  • Brad Mehldau’s After Bach II and Après Fauré are due May 10 on Nonesuch Records. The Bach album comprises four preludes and one fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier, as well as the Allemande from the fourth Partita, interspersed with seven compositions or improvisations by Mehldau inspired by the complementary works of Bach—including Mehldau’s Variations on Bach’s Goldberg Theme. On Après Fauré, Mehldau performs four nocturnes, from a thirty-seven-year span of Gabriel Fauré’s career, as well as a reduction of an excerpt from the Adagio movement of his Piano Quartet in G Minor. Here Mehldau’s four compositions that Fauré inspired are presented in a group, bookended by two sections featuring the French composer’s works.

  • The 2024 Big Ears Festival is next week, taking place in venues throughout downtown Knoxville, TN, March 21–24, with more than a dozen Nonesuch artists past, present, and future performing as part of the label's 60th anniversary celebrations. In addition to all of the music and film offerings, Big Ears also hosts a number of artist conversations with music journalists Ann Powers and Nate Chinen, including talks with Sam Amidon, Laurie Anderson, Darcy James Argue, Rhiannon Giddens, Mary Halvorson, Robin Holcomb, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Brad Mehldau, Davóne Tines, and Yasmin Williams.

  • About This Album

    The members of the original Joshua Redman Quartet—Redman (saxophone), Brad Mehldau (piano), Christian McBride (bass), and Brian Blade (drums)—reunite with the July 10, 2020 release of RoundAgain, the group’s first recording since 1994’s MoodSwing. The album features seven newly composed songs: three from Redman, two from Mehldau, and one each from McBride and Blade. "A flawless effort," excaims NPR. "Each one of them is at the very top of his game now." A live version of Redman’s “Right Back Round Again” may be seen below, in a video directed by Matthew Beighleyr.

    Redman says of his first group as a bandleader, which was together for approximately a year and a half: “I realized almost immediately that this band wouldn’t stay together for very long. They were without a doubt, for our generation, among the most accomplished and innovative on their respective instruments. They were already all in such high demand—everyone wanted to play with them! And they all had such strong and charismatic musical personalities—destined to start soon pursuing their own independent visions. I knew better than anyone else just how incredibly lucky I was to have even that short time with them.” 

    In the intervening decades, each has played with one or more of the others on various occasions, but all four had never properly reunited. “I knew it would happen, but I didn’t know when,” Redman admits. “We were all so busy, and we needed the space, both in our schedules and in our creative development.”

    “We would have done it ten years ago if it were up to me,” Mehldau insists. “Josh, Christian, and Brian are all my heroes. It’s like playing with The Avengers.” 

    Blade adds, “This band is like a turntable where the stylus was lifted but the turntable is still spinning. We just had to drop the needle, and there we were with all of the information we had gathered. It has gotten deeper because of life itself, and because Joshua, Brad, and Christian plumb the depths every day.” 

    “These guys have grown exponentially,” McBride insists. “They are super-monsters now, and playing with them gave me a hard look at myself. And when you’re intimate creating art, even if you don’t play together for twenty years, you only need two bars to realize what the feeling is about, because the feeling never leaves."

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Joshua Redman, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
    Brad Mehldau, piano
    Christian McBride, bass
    Brian Blade, drums

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Produced by Joshua Redman
    Recorded September 10-12, 2019 at Sear Sound Studio C, New York, NY
    Associate Producer and Engineer: James Farber
    Assistant Engineer: Owen Mulholland
    Additional Engineering: Brian Montgomery
    Mixed by James Farber October 25-26, 2019 at Sear Sound Studio A, New York, NY
    Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, Edgewater, NJ

    Design by John Gall
    Photographs by Michael Wilson

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