A few years ago Joshua Redman made his debut on Blue Note with where are we. Released some thirty years into his career as a composer and bandleader, the record also served as his first vocal project, making a star of Gabrielle Cavassa’s husky voice and sometimes heart-stopping sense of timing and phrasing at the head of an ensemble which included the pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Brian Blade.
As the first leg of the where are we tour drew to a close, those three musicians left to honour other engagements and Redman began to build a new rhythm section around a couple of inspiring young talents in the form of the bassist Philip Norris and percussionist Nazir Ebo. The pianist Paul Cornish whose apparently effortless style belies deep roots and a lifetime of training completed the quartet, as led by the flush lyricism of Redman’s saxophone they began to work towards Words Fall Short, which was released on Blue Note in the summer of last year.
Described as both a celebration and critique of the United States, the thirteen tracks of where are we responded to geographical locations from Minneapolis to Baltimore to Alabama and reinterpreted both musically and lyrically a collection of standards. ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ offered a smoky and sultry jazz setting of the Bruce Springsteen song for instance while ‘Chicago Blues’ interpolated both Jimmy Rushing and Count Basie’s swing-era ‘Goin’ to Chicago’ and the cherished centrepiece of Sufjan Stevens’ second state-based album Illinois. Other tracks responded to Rodgers and Hart, Woody Guthrie, John Coltrane and Charles Ives and James Sinclair.
On the other hand Words Fall Short proved a resting place for some of Redman’s compositions which had been searching for a home. Its seven instrumental tracks were capped by a return of Cavassa for the poignant and suggestive album closer ‘Era’s End’. In the meantime Cornish released You’re Exaggerating! as his debut as a leader for Blue Note while Cavassa has also signed with the label, with an album rumoured for sometime this year.
A new video finds Redman and his ensemble at a crossroads, performing material from where are we with Cavassa on 9 July 2024 at AHF Summer Arts Lounge in Berlin, a few months before the quartet would come to test their progress and head into the recording studio for Words Fall Short. Their take on ‘Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?’ is truly stunning, a stonking and freewheeling rendition of the tune which was written by Eddie DeLange and Louis Alter and made famous by Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday before serving as the where are we centrepiece.
On this occasion we’re doubly glad to possess eyes as well as ears, as from the denim-blue linen jacket which Redman lounges in at the start of the performance, loose enough to let him work up into a lather and steam by the song’s end, to Cavassa’s turquoise leatherette dress to Cornish’s cornrows and paper-strewn open-topped piano, his open-collar shirt and sports coat – attire which both he and Norris are forced to discard come the performance’s sweltering close – this live rendition is a visual treat which well matches the stained and saturated tones of the music.
