Joshua Redman and his trio begin a five-night residency at New York's Jazz Standard tonight. The New York Times says to expect "plenty of dynamism in the exchange" from the trio; the Village Voice says that "Redman's authoritative these days, and he's taught his team how to keep lots of balls in the air at once." The Guardian gives four stars to the saxophonist's recent concert with Brad Mehldau in London and the Mehldau Trio's own show there, citing the pianist's "remarkable contrapuntal improvising style and incisive musical intelligence."
Joshua Redman and his trio, featuring bassist Matt Penman and drummer Greg Hutchinson, meet up in New York City for the start of a five-night residency at the Jazz Standard tonight. New York Times music critic Nate Chinen, in recommending the sets, says that Redman, on his latest Nonesuch release, Compass, with both its trio and double trio formats, produces "a result that feels rewardingly loose." Even with the single trio format at this week's shows, Chinen predicts, "there should still be plenty of dynamism in the exchange." The Village Voice's Jim Macnie concurs, explaining that "Redman's authoritative these days, and he's taught his team how to keep lots of balls in the air at once."
Redman was in London last week performing with label mate Brad Mehldau in a duo set at Wigmore Hall. The Thursday night concert was the first event in the Wigmore jazz series Mehldau is curating as artistic director. The second, the following night, featured Mehldau wiith his Trio, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. The Guardian gives the two events four stars.
"On both shows," says the paper's John Fordham, "the pianist applied his remarkable contrapuntal improvising style and incisive musical intelligence" to the repertoire.
For the first night's show, with "the eloquent saxophonist" Redman, "Mehldau was often able to let his partner's built-in swing release his most whimsical side." And on the next night, Mehldau used the "long-honed empathy" he has developed with his trio mates to bring "the music to an intensity rare for this sometimes hyper-cool artist."
At one point in the latter performance, Fordham reports, "this remarkable group ascended to a three-way roar in which intricate separate details became hypnotically indivisible. The audience provided its own roar at the end."
Read the complete review at guardian.co.uk.
The Brad Mehldau Trio continues its tour through Europe, performing in the Czech Republic and at the Skopje Jazz Festival in Macedonia later this week. For more information on both Mehldau and Redman's respective concert dates, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.
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