Joshua Redman: horn of plenty - African American jazz saxophonist

When Joshua Redman was 10 years old, his mother--a single parent--didn't have enough money to buy him a saxophone. Fortunately, young Joshua was able to borrow his first sax through a school program that lent musical instruments to low-income kids. It may have been the best loan the Berkeley, California, public-school system ever made. Redman went on to graduate summa cum laude from Harvard University, where he played in the jazz band. In the last two years he has released three stellar albums that have established him as perhaps the most promising young instrumentalist in jazz.

While his earlier releases contained straight-ahead covers of pop hits and interpretations of such standards as "Body and Soul," the 25-year-old saxophonist's newest album, titled Mood Swing, is his finest, most original work to date. Each of his compositions evokes a particular mood: "Sweet Sorrow" conjures up the image of two lovers parting; "Past in the Present" explores the persistence of memory. "There were a lot of things I wanted to say, not just as a saxophone player but also as a composer," he explains from his apartment in Brooklyn. "I'm always focused on really expressing my emotions through my horn. I hope that there's an honesty to what I do."

Although the ubiquitous saxophonist has also recorded with the pop acts Peabo Bryson, M'Shell NdegeOcello and rapper Big Daddy Kane, it is jazz that has helped him sort through his own feelings about his family. His father, saxophonist Dewey Redman, carved out a reputation for himself in the seventies, playing with such jazz greats as Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett. Since Joshua was raised by his mother (his parents were never married), he says he has never felt connected to his father in "an emotional, psychological sense." But thanks to their shared muse, that is changing.

"I played regularly with my father for about a year after I graduated from college, and we became closer musically and personally. I think we began to develop more of a father-son relationship. It was natural for it to happen through music. It's the thing we've always had in common."

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