MoodSwing cover
Released

Saxophonist Joshua Redman’s third album, released in 1994, featured a band of up-and-coming peers: Brad Mehldau on piano, Christian McBride on bass, and Brian Blade on drums. His first two releases had mixed originals with jazz standards and pop tunes, but he wrote everything here, and although it suffers a little from CD bloat (11 tracks in 70 minutes), the album has a consistency that matches its title. It’s cool, even somewhat reticent; Redman’s compositions are frequently simple blues riffs or short, hooky melodies (“Alone in the Morning,” a gentle samba, is an exception), and he plays them in an introspective manner reminiscent of late-period Joe Henderson. Mehldau, McBride, and Blade are a terrific rhythm section, coloring inside the lines but still conveying plenty of excitement and youthful enthusiasm, the drummer in particular. The pianist was often accused, early in his career, of being a Bill Evans acolyte, so it’s interesting to hear him drop in some Keith Jarrett moves on this record.

Phil Freeman

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