Review: Joshua Redman turns Grace Cathedral into his living room - San Jose Mercury News 2/28/10
2/28/10 1:03 PM
Review: Joshua Redman
turns Grace Cathedral
into his living room
By Richard Scheinin
rscheinin@mercurynews.com
Posted: 02/27/2010 07:05:09 PM PST
Updated: 02/27/2010 09:10:09 PM PST
SAN FRANCISCO — Saxophonist Joshua Redman
began his solo concert at Grace Cathedral on Friday
by playing long, velvety tones at the back of the
great Gothic church. As the notes echoed through
the vaulted spaces, they sounded like the lonesome
song of a humpback whale. Then, slowly, as
Redman walked up the center aisle toward the altar,
his tenor saxophone song settled somewhere
between a Gregorian chant and a Coltrane spiritual.
A moment later, it revealed itself as Duke Ellington's
"In a Sentimental Mood—" played, it seemed, by two
saxophonists. I've never heard anything like it:
Redman was using the church's seven-second
reverberation as a second instrument, working with
the echoes and overtones to create the illusion of a
duet. He was a billowing, harmonizing, one-man
spirit band in the darkened church, where Ellington
gave a famous concert of sacred music in 1965.
Redman, no doubt, was aware of the tradition he
had stepped into with this concert, part of the
SFJAZZ Spring Season. The SFJAZZ organization has
presented many important saxophonists in solo
recital at Grace since 1986: Anthony Braxton,
Charles Lloyd, Joe Henderson, Steve Lacy, Jackie
McLean, Pharoah Sanders (who returns April 16) and
others — including Redman, 10 years ago, when he
Advertisement
http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_14485344
was 31 and challenged by the acoustics, which can
turn music into a muddle.
"It was a great experience," he joked with the
audience Friday, "but I swore I'd never do it again."
Good thing he changed his mind; people will be
talking about Friday's sold-out concert for years to
come.
Rich intimacy
Redman spent much of the time walking around the
cathedral while playing, encircling the audience
with music, giving a rich intimacy to the event,
despite Grace's vast spaces. The concert was at once d
ramatic, almost theatrical, but also personal — and
good entertainment. Redman, with his between-
songs banter, didn't let things get overly serious.
"I almost got lost back there," he joked, after
circumnavigating the cathedral during one of the
night's dozen or so tunes.
Switching to soprano for Wayne Shorter's
"Footprints," Redman used circular breathing to
sustain his phrases and wound up sounding like a
buzzing swarm. Again walking the aisles, he sent up
reverberating cascades of arpeggios and other
patterns, constantly modulating, then slowed it
down, the sound growing spacious and floating like
clouds.
Interestingly, these effects were similar to ones
Redman summoned a few years ago with his electro-
acoustic trio by using looping and computer-
generated triggers. Hearing him Friday at Grace, you
had to wonder: Is the music in the technology? In
the acoustics of the venue? Or, in the end, is the
music simply in the player? With Redman, the
Page 1 of 2
Review: Joshua Redman turns Grace Cathedral into his living room - San Jose Mercury News 2/28/10 1:03 PM

answer is the latter. When: 8 p.m. April 16

Where: 1100 California St., San Francisco
With a musician as smart and curious as Redman, Tickets: $25-$50;
you expect to be surprised. Still when he switched www.sfjazz.org or
to alto saxophone and merged Horace Silver's " 866-920-JAZZ
Sister Sadie" and Ornette Coleman's "Broadway
Blues" into a single song, that was really a surprise.

Trading melody

Back on tenor, Redman had the audience sing some

billowy drone-tones, which served as
accompaniment to his prayerful playing of John
Coltrane's "Naima." And for Coleman's "Law Years,"
he brought on a surprise guest: the great trumpeter
Dave Douglas, who materialized at the back of the
cathedral.

He and Redman traded melody and embellishments

back and forth across the church, eventually
meeting in the center aisle for a free-jazz blowout.

Later, as an encore, Redman played one of his own

tunes, "Zarafah," written for his mother, who was in
the audience. "The pressure is on," he said, smiling.

The song is bluesy and chantlike, with an Eastern

vibe. The performance conveyed fortitude,
intelligence and love, and, when he finished,
Redman said to his contented audience, "See you in
10 years."

Contact Richard Scheinin at 408-920-5069.

SFJAZZ Spring Season through June 12

Including Pharoah Sanders" solo concert at Grace
Cathedral

Advertisement

http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_14485344 Page 2 of 2