Joshua Redman marks the release of his latest album, Compass, in his first live performances with the double trio featured on the record, bassists Reuben Rogers and Larry Grenadier and drummers Greg Hutchinson and Brian Blade, tonight and tomorrow at New York City's Highline Ballroom and in Boston and Albany later in the week. The New York Times recommends the concerts, saying that the album's double-trio format leads to "a result that feels rewardingly loose ... the sort of jazz interaction that can only be further clarified by live performance." The Boston Globe calls the ensemble "a fascinating sonic experiment" that both displays its "supple touch" and creates "churning crescendos."
Joshua Redman marked last week's release of his latest album, Compass, with trio concerts in New Jersey and Connecticut and a public conversation about his career, at the City University of New York's Center for the Humanities, this past weekend. Redman and his weekend trio partners, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Greg Hutchinson, who are featured on Compass, are joined by the album's other set of featured performers, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Brian Blade, for concerts at New York City's Highline Ballroom tonight and tomorrow night and in Boston and Albany later in the week.
New York Times critic Nate Chinen recommends the events, saying that the double-trio format on the album leads to "a result that feels rewardingly loose ... the sort of jazz interaction that can only be further clarified by live performance ..."
For more information on upcoming performances, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour/joshua-redman.
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In advance of Thursday's performance at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston, the Boston Globe has published a feature on Redman and his intriguing lineup. The Globe's Andrew Gilbert says the new albums sees the players' "carefully navigating a series of compositions which unfold palpably in three dimensions ... [T]he ensemble is a fascinating sonic experiment in which Redman's saxophone is flanked on each side by bass and drums."
The new album follows Redman's previous Nonesuch release, Back East, an acoustic-trio recording, which Gilbert calls "a tremendously satisfying project ... On both tenor and soprano sax he thrived in the music's wide-open harmonic spaces, playing beautifully compressed lines with concentrated lyrical intensity."
Gilbert goes on to say of the new effort:
The Double Trio displays a supple touch on the opening track of Compass, a beautifully calibrated free improvisation called "Uncharted." And the band doesn't shy away from churning crescendos, building to a furious trap set duet on "Identity Theft." But the group's dynamic range tends more toward a whisper than a scream, which makes each earned outpouring that much more effective.
Read the complete article at boston.com.
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The Cleveland Plain Dealer gives an A- to this "wild ride" of an album. "Soaring above it all is Redman," writes the Plain Dealer's John Soeder, "whether he's reimagining Beethoven's 'Moonlight' Sonata or navigating original flights of fancy such as 'Faraway' and 'Insomnomaniac.'"
The Philadelphia Inquirer gives three stars to Compass, citing its double trios, which "inject some new daring in Redman," and the Toronto Star gives the album three stars as well, with reviewer Ashante Infantry concluding that "no matter how you like your Redman, the 39-year-old California native intrigues here on soprano and tenor in conversation with these challenging sidemen, and this is a significant addition to the critical contemporary player's catalogue." The Times (UK) offers up another three-star review, with writer John Bungey saying "Redman's playing is inventive and often refreshingly spontaneous."
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