so
modern jazz
there's a few artists out there that actually don't try to outdo the artists that inspired them. you get a sax player that is okay being himself, and who's not trying to be john coltrane, sonny rollins, and dexter gordon all wrapped into one, and you might have something. because lets be honest. its just not going to happen. you can try to do what they're doing, only better. or you can try to do something new that is better. Either way, you're screwed. There is just no way to make better jazz than the old school players.
anyway. Joshua Redman is one of these guys. He just does what he wants to do on this album. He was a harvard student, who jammed with the players at Berklee in his spare time. He was pre-med, and he DROPPED OUT, to become a musician. how can you be more baller than that? that might not seem relevant. but i think it is. somehow.
so this album is very riff oriented. the horn players back in the day were trying as hard as they could to sound like the singers of the day. the goal of most sax players was to get as close as they could to the vocal tone and style of someone like ella fitzgerald, or billie holiday. that's usually not the case these days. joshua redman's melodies are much more like a lead guitar line. short bursts of deliberately chosen notes. plus, as the title suggests, this album is very funk groove based. solid straight ahead backbeats, as opposed to the loose swing of the old days. as such, it very effectively bridges the gap between old jazz, and modern pop, without trying to be above or beyond either. if you ever get the chance to see joshua redman in concert, and hear him do a beatles song on the soprano sax, you'll see exactly what i mean.
the best song on this album is the first track. there's no better way to capture the interest of both an intense jazz fan, and a casual listener, than opening your album by playing the bass line and the melody, SIMULTANEOUSLY, on a tenor sax. because the tenor sax has an amazing range, and joshua redman has a virtuosic mastery of its full range. hitting the lowest notes on the horn, and jumping to the highest, with no loss of intonation or control is really impressive. and the opening moments of the first song on this album just really dig into your brain and show you without a doubt what you're in for if you listen to the rest of it.
man
i rocked this album non-stop for like a year and half. i didn't know jazz could be like this when this album first came out. you've got funk, rock, and jazz, all together and performed by a guy with just absolute control over his instrument. check out track 6, and track 9, for superb examples of his improvisational technique. he just hangs out in the groove on these tracks, sliding in and out of the beat, much like a modern day hip-hop MC. just the right notes, at just the right times, with just the right regard for where and when the beat falls.
i just don't know where to go with this, because this is one of my favortie albums of all time. seriously. desert island kind of album here. it doesn't have the same raw innovative quality of some of the recordings from the golden age of jazz, but you know, that's all about perspective. nothing that came after that stuff could have sounded as amazing. but even given its context, its both a fun and intersting listen. definitely worth checking out.
9.8/10
loses .2 because, honestly, unless you're crazy about jazz its gonna get kind of boring in the middle
modern jazz
there's a few artists out there that actually don't try to outdo the artists that inspired them. you get a sax player that is okay being himself, and who's not trying to be john coltrane, sonny rollins, and dexter gordon all wrapped into one, and you might have something. because lets be honest. its just not going to happen. you can try to do what they're doing, only better. or you can try to do something new that is better. Either way, you're screwed. There is just no way to make better jazz than the old school players.
anyway. Joshua Redman is one of these guys. He just does what he wants to do on this album. He was a harvard student, who jammed with the players at Berklee in his spare time. He was pre-med, and he DROPPED OUT, to become a musician. how can you be more baller than that? that might not seem relevant. but i think it is. somehow.
so this album is very riff oriented. the horn players back in the day were trying as hard as they could to sound like the singers of the day. the goal of most sax players was to get as close as they could to the vocal tone and style of someone like ella fitzgerald, or billie holiday. that's usually not the case these days. joshua redman's melodies are much more like a lead guitar line. short bursts of deliberately chosen notes. plus, as the title suggests, this album is very funk groove based. solid straight ahead backbeats, as opposed to the loose swing of the old days. as such, it very effectively bridges the gap between old jazz, and modern pop, without trying to be above or beyond either. if you ever get the chance to see joshua redman in concert, and hear him do a beatles song on the soprano sax, you'll see exactly what i mean.
the best song on this album is the first track. there's no better way to capture the interest of both an intense jazz fan, and a casual listener, than opening your album by playing the bass line and the melody, SIMULTANEOUSLY, on a tenor sax. because the tenor sax has an amazing range, and joshua redman has a virtuosic mastery of its full range. hitting the lowest notes on the horn, and jumping to the highest, with no loss of intonation or control is really impressive. and the opening moments of the first song on this album just really dig into your brain and show you without a doubt what you're in for if you listen to the rest of it.
man
i rocked this album non-stop for like a year and half. i didn't know jazz could be like this when this album first came out. you've got funk, rock, and jazz, all together and performed by a guy with just absolute control over his instrument. check out track 6, and track 9, for superb examples of his improvisational technique. he just hangs out in the groove on these tracks, sliding in and out of the beat, much like a modern day hip-hop MC. just the right notes, at just the right times, with just the right regard for where and when the beat falls.
i just don't know where to go with this, because this is one of my favortie albums of all time. seriously. desert island kind of album here. it doesn't have the same raw innovative quality of some of the recordings from the golden age of jazz, but you know, that's all about perspective. nothing that came after that stuff could have sounded as amazing. but even given its context, its both a fun and intersting listen. definitely worth checking out.
9.8/10
loses .2 because, honestly, unless you're crazy about jazz its gonna get kind of boring in the middle