REVIEWS
Joshua Redman - Compass
by Daryl Easlea for The BBC
08 January 2009
Using Sonny Rollins' 1957 album, Way Out West, as a basis for his 2007 album Back East, saxophonist Joshua Redman expanded the idea of the jazz three-piece. Redman calls its follow-up, Compass, "a further exploration of the trio format . . . an expansion on, and an extension of Back East." And he's not wrong. At times, it is a dazzling album of considerable artistry. With an experienced supporting team – bassists Larry Grenadier and Reuben Rogers and drummers Brian Blade and Gregory Hutchinson, Redman stretches the players ever further, fronting both rhythm sections and, on five of the tracks here, performing with the entire line-up in a double-trio configuration.
The extreme nature of some of the playing is always brought back to the melody line with Redman's innate sense of commercialism; we go from the relative calm of Uncharted to the free runs of Faraway and the increasingly fraught melancholy of Just Like You (one of the recordings with both trios) and back again with relative ease. The album's originals are complemented by the extemporisation of Moonlight, based on Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata which beats at the album’s often sad and unsettled core. Bleak, emotional and full of gravity, Compass is the sort of serious-minded album that gives jazz in 2009 a very good name.
Sonny Rollins - Road Shows, Vol. 1
by Chris Jones for The BBC
17 October 2008
With over 65 (yes, 65) years treading the boards behind him, you'd expect Sonny Rollins' light to have dimmed somewhat. Wrong. As many who know and love the man's work will testify, there are two Sonny Rollins: the tenor sax man, self deprecating and almost loath to commit himself to tape; and the wild, restless, free and impassioned Rollins who seems to show no signs of resting; loving to blow live on stage, and gaining artistic satisfaction from interacting with both his band and his audience.
It thus makes sense that the best way to hear Sonny is either in person or recorded in concert. Road Shows Vol.1 does the latter quite spectacularly. Halfway through track one, Best Wishes, and you're already wondering when he'll be playing near you so you can watch the saxophone colossus do his thing one more time.
Drawn from a plethora of live dates covering the period 1980 -2007 and from places as far-flung as Tokyo to Toulouse, the material ranges from standards (Some Enchanted Evening) to classics (Tenor Madness) and even returns Rollins to his Caribbean roots with Nice Lady. Sonny's band varies throughout containing people like Bobby Broom (guitar); Clifton Anderson (trombone); Mark Soskin, Stephen Scott (piano); Christian McBride, Bob Cranshaw (upright bass); Jerome Harris (electric bass); Al Foster, Roy Haynes, Victor Lewis, Perry Wilson (drums); Victor See Yuen, Kimati Dinizulu (percussion). Each line up acquits itself marvellously, with only some rather outre electric bass on Easy Living giving you reason to pick the smallest of holes.
Those 65 plus years of experience mean that the tenor slides, dips and never for one instance falters. It's the sound of a man still in love with music after all these years. Shows Vol.1 is an album to remind you that jazz doesn't have to be either 'difficult' or loungey. Sometimes it's just good clean fun. Here's hoping he can long continue to do this kind of stuff.