Walking Shadows

[danasgoodstuff]

I often enjoyed Jr Redman's work in the past , even if I'm not exactly 'a fan', even saw him with Metheney way back at the start of his career. But this just left me totally cold/nonplussed/bewildered. Had to listen to Clifford With Strings and Art P's Winter Moon to remind myself of how ballads are supposed to work...it's not like he's too young to get it now, so is it generational or what?

[xybert]

Haven't heard this. I haven't heard a lot of Redman, just Wish and Moodswing under his own name (not bad, can definitely live without them). I must say i love him on Mehldau's Highway Rider and on the James Farm record, two albums that won't win me any jazz-internet points, understandably so, but i dig em! I'm moderately interested in Walking Shadows, it's the type of release that i definitely wouldn't go out of my way to order but if i saw it in a brick and mortar i might be tempted.

My half baked opinion on Redman = he's got his own, slightly weird thing going on that sits uncomfortably relative to what people expect from him... not out enough to be out, not in enough to be in... not an inside/outside guy, just different, but only slightly... he's framed as a mainstream tenor hero and is close enough to mainstream that expectations get all out of whack. This is how i 'come to terms' with him in my own mind.

[John Litweiler]

I heard him in a concert last week. There was what seemed to be a bit of real improvisation, but mostly it was set pieces. Show stoppers rather than feeling, a "Ballad" rather than a ballad.

Muhal Richard Abrams opened that concert with some glorious piano improvising. Notes struck one at a time, sustain pedal down, te sound faded slowly in the high ceiling in Symphony Center, then the next note -- and so on. Beautifully sustained and developed, atonally.

[paul secor]

I heard him in a concert last week. There was what seemed to be a bit of real improvisation, but mostly it was set pieces. Show stoppers rather than feeling, a "Ballad" rather than a ballad.

Muhal Richard Abrams opened that concert with some glorious piano improvising. Notes struck one at a time, sustain pedal down, te sound faded slowly in the high ceiling in Symphony Center, then the next note -- and so on. Beautifully sustained and developed, atonally.

"Interesting" world we live in where Mr. Abrams opens for Joshua Redman. I guess it would have worked for me if I had attended the concert. I could have left after Muhal finished playing.

Edited December 1, 2013 by paul secor