HUMBERTO AMORIM - JAZZ IS TIMELESS

O saxofonista Dewey Redman nasceu em Fort Worth,Texas no 17 de maio de 1931 e desenvolveu uma carreira musical ao redor de seus dois instrumentos principais: o saxofone-tenor e o musette.

Talvez a maioria das colaborações significativas de Redman aconteceu durante os anos 1967-74, quando ele era um integrante do grupo de Ornette Coleman. Durante este tempo ele tocou também na Charlie Hadens Liberation Music Orchestra (1969) e no quarteto de Keith Jarrett (1971-76). Redman também conduziu seus próprios grupos, tendo como baterista Eddie Moore, seu sideman favorito.

O estilo marcante de Redman surgiu como resultado de suas várias colaborações, um estilo caracterizado pela vocalização feita no seu saxofone. Neste momento, ele também o aplicou ao musette. Outro trabalho importante foi no quarteto Old and New Dreams, formado por ex-integrantes do grupo de Coleman: Don Cherry, Charlie Haden e Ed Blackwell. Este grupo viajou extensivamente e gravou nos anos oitenta alguns álbuns.
Coleman morreu em paz aos 75 anos em New York em 2006.

Walter Redman was born and grew up in Fort Worth. He started off on clarinet at 13, playing in a church band. Not long after, he met Ornette Coleman when they both played in the high school marching band. Typical of late-1950’s jazz tenor saxophone players, Mr. Redman was informed by the sound and style of Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. But he didn’t immerse himself in technique and harmonic theory, as those musicians did, or lead a band until his mid-30’s. Until then, he said, he was largely playing by ear.

Consequently his playing always kept a rawness, a willingness to play outside tonality, a closeness to the blues and above all a powerful sound. He was often called a free-jazz musician, and he could indeed put a logic and personality into music that had no chord changes. But that designation doesn’t acknowledge how authoritatively Mr. Redman could play a traditional ballad like “The Very Thought of You,” or how his solos could become dramatic diversions in someone else’s written music, as in parts of Tom Harrell’s 1998 album “The Art of Rhythm”.

Reference/Fonte - Clube do Jazz
Tradução – Humberto Amorim