Aug 26, 2025 1:53 PM
Blindfold Test: Buster Williams
Buster Williams, who at the age of 83 has been on the scene for 65 years, had never done a Blindfold Test. The first…
Saxophonist Dewey Redman died on Sept. 2 of liver failure in Brooklyn. He was 75.
Redman developed a musical career around the tenor saxophone and musette. En route to these instruments, Redman, born in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 17, 1931, began as a clarinetist at the age of 13, soon followed by alto saxophone. It was as a student at Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1953, that he changed to tenor. Following college, from 1956-‘60, Redman worked as a high school teacher and started working as a professional musician while attending North Texas State University, where he received a Masters degree in 1959. A move to San Francisco was a musical choice, resulting in an early collaboration with Donald Garrett.
Perhaps Redman’s most significant collaborations occurred during the years 1967-‘74, when he was a member of Ornette Coleman’s New York group. During this time he also played with Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra (1969) as well as with Keith Jarrett’s band (1971-‘76). Redman also led his own bands in this period, with drummer Eddie Moore being one of his most used sidemen.
Redman’s signature style emerged as a result of these collaborative efforts, a style characterized by vocalizing through his horn. At this time, he also picked up the musette. Another major development came with he helped form Old and New Dreams, a band comprised of former Coleman bandmates. Don Cherry, Haden and Ed Blackwell worked together with Redman in this band. This group toured extensively and recorded together into the 1980s.
Redman’s own recordings included a collaboration with Cecil Taylor and Elvin Jones (Momentum Space, Verve, 1999) and a program of blues, free-jazz and bop, titled The Struggle Continues (ECM, 1982). His other albums included Redman And Blackwell In Willisau (duos with Blackwell, Black Saint, 1980), Ear Of The Behearer (Impulse!, 1973), Old And New Dreams (Black Saint, 1976), New York Is Now! (As a sideman with Coleman, Blue Note, 1968), Liberation Music Orchestra (as a sideman with Haden, Impulse!, 1969), El Juicio (as a sideman with Jarrett, Atlantic, 1971) and 80/81 (as a sideman with Pat Metheny, ECM, 1980).
Along with leading his own bands, Redman also performed alongside his son, tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman, and was a mentor to drummer Matt Wilson. Dewey Redman’s last concert was on Aug. 27 at the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in New York.
“What I got from Percy was the dignity of playing the bass,” Buster Williams said of Percy Heath.
Aug 26, 2025 1:53 PM
Buster Williams, who at the age of 83 has been on the scene for 65 years, had never done a Blindfold Test. The first…
Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.
Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
The Free Slave, Cosmos Nucleus and Sunset To Dawn: three classic Muse albums being reissued this fall by Timer Traveler Recordings.
Aug 26, 2025 1:32 PM
Record producer and “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman has launched his next endeavor, the archival label Time Traveler…
Butcher Brown, clockwise from top left: Marcus Tenney, DJ Harrison, Morgan Burrs, Corey Fonville and Andrew Randazzo. (Keyboardist Harrison couldn’t make the gig, so special guest Jacob Mann sat in with the band at the Reno Jazz Festival.)
Aug 19, 2025 12:41 PM
The band known as Butcher Brown has enjoyed the last half-decade basking in the glow from the twin engines of critical…
This year’s Jazz em Agosto set by the Darius Jones Trio captured the titular alto saxophonist at his most ferocious.
Aug 26, 2025 1:31 PM
The organizers of Lisbon, Portugal’s Jazz em Agosto Festival assume its audience is thoughtful and independent. Over…
