5-40537-2

Freddie Redd - Redd's Blues

Released - 1999/2002

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, January 17, 1961
Benny Bailey, trumpet; Jackie McLean, alto sax; Tina Brooks, tenor sax; Freddie Redd, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Sir John Godfrey, drums.

tk.2 Love Lost
tk.6 Somewhere
tk.7 Old Spice
tk.11 Blues For Betsy
tk.18 Now
tk.20 Cute Doot

Also Released in Japan as TOCJ-66076

Session Photos

Photos: Francis Wolff

Track Listing

Title	Author	Recording Date
Now	Freddie Redd	January 17 1961
Cute Doot	Freddie Redd	January 17 1961
Old Spice	Freddie Redd	January 17 1961
Blues For Betsy	Freddie Redd	January 17 1961
Somewhere	Freddie Redd	January 17 1961
Love Lost	Freddie Redd	January 17 1961

Liner Notes

FREDDIE REDD is a two-fisted piano player out of the old tradition — that's a little like being a two-gunned slinger out of the Wild West — and he rode with the best of them, touring with Art Blakey in 1954 and with Charlie Mingus's Jazz Workshop in 1956. But he is most often remembered for his scoring of, and acting in, Jack Gelber's 1959 Off-Broadway hit The Connection.

The Connection was obviously a big break for Freddie, who had long sought a vehicle for his unique compositional talent. Gelber's play, a semi-extemporaneous paean to the bebop musicians' life, gave Freddie a chance to hang his long-form melodies on a tight, gripping plot. It was Living Theater at its best.

The success of the soundtrack album from The Connection which featured fellow thespian/musician Jackie McLean, led to a Blue Note recording contract for Freddie and in November, 1960, he recorded the now classic Shades Of Redd album, featuring a front line of both McLean on alto and an old sidekick, Tina Brooks on tenor. Shades Of Redd displayed the pianist's rare ability to mold two horns and simple folk-like melodies into a romping, lyrical signature sound.

In January of 1961, Freddie returned to Rudy Van Gelder's studio in New Jersey with McLean and Brooks, and an additional soloist/trumpet man Benny Bailey, to record six more distinctive jazz sides. The result of that session, and the culmination of Freddie Redd's most fertile musical period, is the previously unreleased third album.

Like fellow Art Blakey alumnus Horace Silver, Freddie has a gift for making the group sound like a natural extension of his piano. He doesn't just comp behind a soloist; he lays down a whole wall of rhythmic and harmonic colors. His writing shows a deep concern for the interplay between composing and improvising; his arrangements are warm and comfortable for the soloists to explore, while the long ensemble passages and rhythmic shifts tie the group's improvisation into his own piano style. Freddie is a lead pianist, like another of his influences, Thelonious Monk, and his personal sound on the instrument shapes everything around him.

And, like Horace Silver, Freddie came to the piano late in life, as a teenager in the armed forces, circa 1946. (Interestingly, while Silver took up the instrument after having played tenor saxophone, Freddie began playing the tenor after making his mark as a pianist, in 1959.) Hence, his playing has an economy of style and a simple, forthright reliance on parallel thirds that, like Silver's work, reflects a relaxed, mature esthetic. The swing is the thing. They won't dazzle you with technical brilliance, but every lick is as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar.

And while his playing and writing recall a long line of piano players, from the stride professors like Willie the Lion and Fats Waller to the single-note kings like Bud Powell, it is obvious in the way he swings and the kinds of popular quotes he incorporates that horn players have had a profound influence on Freddie Redd's work.

Perhaps his most perfect foil is Jackie McLean, Jackie plays those tumbling two/five chord progressions so prevalent in Freddie's writing (and so typical of the Shaw 'Nuff school of bebop construction) with a fierce conviction, giving Freddie's marching piano style a new importance. And Freddie's open, old-fashioned voicings provide a dynamic setup for Jackie's quarter tone of anguish (the man loves to play just a little sharp to lead the ear toward the soul of the line).

The full artistic range, evolution and vision of Jackie McLean is chartered by the many stunning sessions that he led for Blue Note, as are his special/kinetic relationships with such artists as Art Blakey, Sonny Clark and Lee Morgan.

Like Jackie, Tina Brooks has a soulful, romantic streak in his playing. He too is a very human sounding voice on Freddie's compositions, and a substantial contributor to his musical history. They go back a long way together. Tina was the tenor player on Freddie's first professional gig in Syracuse, New York in 1950, and he was McLean's understudy during the run of The Connection. In the intervening years Tina was traveling the R&B circuit with the bands of Charles Brown and Amos Milburn. Even as he later developed into an extraordinary modern improviser, the blues remained a big part of his style, as he proved on a series of 1958 live recordings and informal all-star sessions with Jimmy Smith and Kenny Burrell.

The elder Statesman of this front line is Benny Bailey, who worked with the big bands of Jay McShann and Dizzy Gillespie during the forties, moved to Sweden in the fifties, and then returned to the States just long enough to make this date as well as his own album and sessions led by Max Roach and Phil Woods (all for Candid). He did not even consider coming back to America until Dexter Gordon enticed him to make the trip for the saxophonist's Sophisticated Giant album in 1977. He has come back to New York more frequently since.

Benny's trumpet sound on this date is reminiscent of both Art Farmer, another sometime expatriate, and Freddie Webster, an early influence, but it remains unique nonetheless. Bailey would have been a welcome addition to more Blue Note sessions of this era.

This session is a potpourri of Freddie Redd's tastier themes. The opener, "Now," is a straight-ahead line with some surprise curves. Jackie McLean, the first one of the solo gate, sets the pace, and the others fall in line behind his lead for a swinging tour through the banked turns of cycling fifths.

"Cute Doot" sounds like some of Freddie's happier themes from The Connection. The melody is played in an exuberant, New Orleans style by the ensemble, with a Latin feel from the drums. shortly, the time slides into a walking four. Freddie's solo, which follows a particularly nice alto/trumpet exchange, is notable in part for his quoting both the theme from Candid Camera and the tag from Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend within the space of a few bars.

"Old Spice" and "Blues For Betsy" are classic period pieces, both nicely grooved and featuring terrific soloing from all concerned, especially Benny Bailey, whose muted trumpet solo in "Old Spice" is a paradigm of control and nuance, and whose opening on "Blues For Betsy" is a challenge for all who follow. Also worth noting are the cogent bowed bass solo by Paul Chambers and loose goose drum solo from Sir John Godfrey, a Jamaican drummer who was gigging around Brooklyn at the time and who had, like Tina, Jackie and Freddie, served time with Charlie Singleton's early fifties R&B band.

"Somewhere" is the kind of haunting little melody that Jackie McLean can eat up like thick cream — slowly and with attention to the finger-licking finer things in life. His solo, like his playing throughout this set, is very tasty. "Love Lost" is an example of Freddie's ballad writing at its best. The slowly drawn theme is cast in shades of Redd, but also has a slightly Monkish hue. Again, there's the wonderful ensemble writing, with Jackie's crying sound cutting through to send the soloists on their way with a fond memory of how it used to be.

Freddie's Blue Note recordings, which capture a most soulful collection of players during the height of bop's romantic period, will stand as a testament to this man's writing and playing gifts.

—BEN SIDRAN, June 1988