Remembering Dewey Redman
Every once in a while I am thinking of Dewey Redman.
Joshua Redman was my favourite saxophone player when I started listening to jazz, I soon started to investigate his colleagues and discovered his father. Not just any regular father - if they exist - but a jazz-world famous saxophone player, playing with Ornette Coleman, Keith Jarrett, Charlie Haden, Pat Metheny and many others.
I saw him several times in the mid-nineties with his band featuring Rita Marcotulli (piano), Cameron Brown (bass) and Matt Wilson (drums).
Where Dewey musically explored Avantgarde Jazz in the 60's and would move in and out between Straight Ahead and Free, Joshua dived back into the 50's and stayed there for a while. Later, Joshua also developed further into other directions and still is.
Both are very charismatic and outgoing players, maybe Joshua seems a bit more serious and careful, while Dewey was more raw and humorous. Sometimes things are different as they seem..
Both like the deep soulful Texas tenor sound, well, Dewey was from Texas himself..
I even got some time to spend with Dewey and had some saxophone lessons from him.
What really stuck with me was:
- "Practise long notes". Dewey Redman was famous for preaching to practising long notes since the first thing you hear from someone is his/her tone.
- He would repeatedly say "As a musician you are going to be lonely." Something that at that point when I was 17 did not make any sense..music was all about partying, jamming, having fun together.
- "Always write music and keep the scetches so you always can finish them if needed." Another wise lesson. Piling up ideas and finishing others to keep new music coming is essential for making a difference as an artist.
Read more about him on
Wikipedia.
And there's also a documentary called "Dewey Time". The fragment above is a trailer of it. (I still have to watch it myself.)
on 16/05/2020
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