An early afternoon start for this one and I entered the Town Hall with mixed feelings. Despite being a more than capable composer himself, Redman has, in my ever so humble opinion, too often reverted back to playing the Great American Songbook and I think that this does both him and his audience a disservice in that, whilst this frequently makes for entertaining albums, you can’t help feeling that he is playing within himself and actually has more to offer.
He certainly didn’t look
that dynamic as the band wandered on stage with Redman in cool, casual chic,
all smiles. They open with A Message to
Unsend with Redman floating out long notes of a gentle ballad that steadily
increased in complexity as those long notes transform into runs and flickers,
rising in pitch. Cornish builds up the heat with an intense percussive solo and
then Redman steps up again and it’s all really cooking before he leads a
wandering line to the close. So It Goes follows,
opening with a long solo, folding hints of be-bop in amongst some more
Coleman-esque squeals and bee-in-flight phrases. A call and response of low
phrases answered by high squeaks show his range and this leads into a bold,
clear tenor led ballad. Redman looks like he’s enjoying Cornish’s solo as much
as we are as the latter combines solid rhythmic playing with elaborate
melodies; rocking drum and bass behind him provide solid support as he rides it
out. Redman’s solo, when he comes back in is all angles and counter-punches
with the bass stoking the fire, they are all operating at full force.
Borrowed
Eyes opens at funereal pace, a lullaby that folds in
shifting drums, space in the bass and fragile, distant piano. A blues laden
bass solo sings out raising the emotion level before Redman’s solo operates in
the same space and distance. A change of weaponry to soprano sax precedes the
next, bass-led piece with an intense solo that wrings with hopeless tragedy as
it becomes more of a dance and the band join in. It’s a soulful piece, full of
changes and misdirection and sleight of hand. The room is kinder to the earthiness
of the bass than it is to the soprano that sings out with added echo. Words Fall Short (the title track of the
album) opens with a cheerful, carnival bounce that settles into a groove that
stops and starts while Redman sings away over the top before ceding the floor
to Cornish who carries on the bebop feeling with occasional deviations round
different corners. A joy sprung bass solo full of swing and bounce that
somebody should have danced to, follows; Redman’s solo is also full of good
cheer. A high-stepping, rattling drum solo with foundation shaking bomb drops
create the space between the top and bottom of the drums’ voice. Redman teases
an ending and then blows a flurry of notes to lose.
Another echoing solo from
Redman of high line melodies and low note responses morphs slowly into Hoagy’s Stardust; a slow midnight blues at 3 in
the afternoon. All warm, caressed notes with the sparest of backing; it is
quite lovely. A nocturnal Evans-ish piano leads into a closing call of wailing
sax that is chased all the way down to foghorn lows and then a back up in a
series of elaborate runs. The closer, Icarus
(?) opens with a charging rhythm section and a frantic duel between sax and
piano, each playing complex runs with drums and bass bringing the heat and
pushing the front line on setting them the challenge to go further.
I left with any doubts about Redman blown away. This had been proper jazz and well worth the price of admission. As always seems to be the case with concerts by big American names at Cheltenham there had been another possible star in the line-up and my advice is to keep ’em peeled for any further appearances by Paul Cornish. Dave Sayer
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