Joshua Redman: Jazz Moves in Mysterious Ways

Tuesday April 03, 2012

From Connect Savannah

Jazz Moves in Mysterious Ways
Joshua Redman almost missed his calling as a musician
By: Bill DeYoung

The magnificently exploratory journey of Joshua Redman’s life very nearly took a side road. If not for chance, one of the most expressive tenor saxophone players in modern jazz might today be just another attorney wearing a sharp suit in some 23rd floor office somewhere.

“I never thought I had the skill or the talent or the drive to be a good, professional jazz musician,” says the 43–year–old son of Dewey Redman, the late saxophonist for, among others, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny and the Ornette Coleman Group.

“I didn’t grow up with my father, but just seeing some of what he had to go through, as a great musician of the utmost integrity, the challenges he faced, I guess I had the sense that a career as a jazz musician is not an easy thing.”

In 1991, Joshua Redman graduated from Harvard University, magnum cum laude, and was accepted into the Yale School of Law. With six months to kill before the start of classes, he moved in “temporarily” with some musician friends in Brooklyn.

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