Monthly Archives: May 2023

Born in Berkeley, California, Redman is the son of legendary saxophonist Dewey Redman and dancer Renee Shedroff. He was exposed at an early age to a variety of musics (jazz, classical, rock, soul, Indian, Indonesian, Middle Eastern, African) and instruments (recorder, piano, guitar, gatham, gamelan), and began playing clarinet at age nine before switching to what became his primary instrument, the tenor saxophone, one year later. The early influences of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cannonball Adderley, and his father—as well as The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Earth, Wind and Fire, Prince, The Police, and Led Zeppelin—drew Joshua more deeply into music. But although he loved playing the saxophone, academics were always his priority and he never seriously considered becoming a professional musician.

In 1991 Redman graduated from Harvard College summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Social Studies. He had already been accepted by Yale Law School, but deferred entrance for what he believed was only going to be one year. Some of his musician friends had recently relocated to Brooklyn, and they were looking for another housemate to help with the rent. Redman accepted their invitation to move in, and almost immediately he found himself immersed in the New York jazz scene. He began jamming and gigging regularly with some of the leading jazz musicians of his generation: Peter Bernstein, Larry Goldings, Kevin Hays, Roy Hargrove, Geoff Keezer, Leon Parker, Jorge Rossy, and Mark Turner, among others. In November of that year, five months after moving to New York, Redman won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition. This was only one of the more visible highlights from a year that saw Redman beginning to tour and record with jazz masters such as his father, Jack DeJohnette, Charlie Haden, Elvin Jones, Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny, Paul Motian, and Clark Terry.

Now fully committed to a life in music, Redman was quickly signed by Warner Bros. Records and issued his self-titled debut album in the spring of 1993, which subsequently earned Redman his first GRAMMY nomination. That fall saw the release of Wish, where Joshua was joined by the all-star cast of Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins. MoodSwing followed in 1994 and introduced his first permanent band, which included three other young musicians who have gone on to become some of the most important and influential artists in modern jazz: pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Brian Blade.

Redman continued to release a series of celebrated recordings including Freedom in the Groove, Timeless Tales (for Changing Times), and Beyond with a variety of different band line-ups, establishing himself as one of the music’s most consistent and successful bandleaders. An affiliation with Nonesuch Records began in 2005 with the album Momentum and saw the release of a wide range of projects including the duo album Nearness with Mehldau, The Bad Plus Joshua Redman, Still Dreaming, and the reunion of his quartet with Mehldau, McBride, and Blade on RoundAgain and LongGone.

Redman was a founding member of the SFJAZZ Collective and has recorded and performed with musicians including Ray Brown, Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea, The Dave Matthews Band, Bill Frisell, Herbie Hancock, Roy Haynes, Milt Jackson, Quincy Jones, Big Daddy Kane, B.B. King, The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, DJ Logic, Yo Yo Ma, Branford Marsalis, John Medeski, Marcus Miller, MeShell Ndegeocello, Nicholas Payton, Simon Rattle, Dianne Reeves, The Rolling Stones, The Roots, Kurt Rosenwinkel, John Scofield, Toots Thielemans, McCoy Tyner, Cedar Walton, Stevie Wonder, and many more. Redman has been nominated for ten GRAMMY Awards and has garnered top honors in critics and readers polls of DownBeat, Rolling Stone, and more. He wrote and performed the music for Louis Malle’s final film Vanya on 42nd Street and is both seen and heard in the Robert Altman film Kansas City.