Saxophone Outlet

By Neal Battaglia

Saxophonist Joshua Redman may not quite be a household name like jazz legends Miles Davis and John Coltrane, but his contribution to music has been broad and important. Redman was born February 1, 1969, and at age 10 began to play the tenor saxophone. While studying in Berkeley's public school system, he was exposed to an exceptional jazz program that nurtured his natural abilities and enabled his entry to Harvard, where he graduated in 1991.

Shortly after graduation, he began to work in earnest on his musical career- with his style on saxophone influenced by Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Earth Wind and Fire, Led Zeppelin, Dexter Gordon, and more. Perhaps one of the most important influences in his music is his father, Dewey Redman, who worked with jazz Great Ornette Coleman. His father was rarely home during Redman's youth due to a grueling touring schedule. A young Joshua spent hours listening to his father playing on records, in the absence of the man himself.

Redman's communication with his father during his younger years was often through jazz, and this close emotional link between jazz and family has forged Redman's hyper emotional and communicative style. It may have also influenced Redman's wild and experimental style on saxophone, it is as if Redman is trying to send a message back over these recordings, saying to his father and the world "I can speak through this medium, too."

Redman has played saxophone all over the world with Jack DeJohnette, Pat Methany, Red Rodney and Paul Motian. His current lineup for live performances and recording is an unusual configuration of double-trio featuring Larry Grenadier, Reuben Rogers, Brian Blade, and Gregory Hutchinson. The release of his newest album "Compass" has been called "a further explanation of the trio format" but really represents Redman's desire to explore new musical avenues and forge the path for new styles in jazz music.

While his live shows have brought critical acclaim, his studio albums have not seen commercial success. Many of the current reviews of his material seem to not see the effort that Redman has put into the expansion of jazz as a style. Never content to play standards, Redman remains one of the few modern jazz composers intent on breaking musical barriers.

Joshua plays both tenor and soprano saxophones with his Selmer Super Balanced action tenor, and a Selmer Mark VI soprano rounding out his preferred saxophones.

His reed preference is Alexander NY #4s for Tenor and DC #3 1/2s for Soprano.

On both tenor and soprano saxophones Joshua uses vintage Otto Link hard rubber mouthpieces, both approximately sizes 7 or 7*.

His current tenor saxophone mouthpiece is from Eric Drake of Saxology and his current soprano mouthpiece (as well as his previous tenor mouthpiece) is from Theo Wanne of Saxophone Mouthpiece Heaven.

But remember boys and girls, Redman's choice of saxophones, reeds, and mouthpieces enable Joshua Redman to sound like Joshua Redman, but you're going to have to do some serious woodshed time if you ever want to approach his unique style of modern emotionally expressive jazz.

-Neal Battaglia

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br>By Neal Battaglia

Argentinian tenor saxophonist, Gato Barbieri, has been entertaining jazz fans for over half a century. Gato Barbieri is Spanish for "Barbieri the cat"; his real name is Leandro Barbieri. Gato's career has spanned from free jazz, to Latin jazz, to jazz pop and in 2002, Gato released his 50th studio album. He first took up music with the clarinet, at age 12, after hearing Charlie Parker's Now's the Time.

Gato Barbieri began his professional music life playing the alto saxophone with pianist Lalo Schifrin in Argentina during the 1950s. While in Lalo's band, Gato would get the chance to play shows with some of jazz's greats, like Coleman Hawkins and Dizzie Gillespie. In 1962, Gato moved to Italy, the homeland of his first wife, and took up the tenor saxophone.

In Italy, drawing influence from John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, and Pharoah Sanders, Barbieri began collaborating with trumpeter Don Cherry. As a sideman for Don Cherry, Gato Barbieri played on two free jazz albums, Complete Communion and Symphony for Improvisors.

In 1969, with the release of The Third World, Barbieri began his career as a band leader. His music began to show a South American influence and garnered him enough recognition that he landed the job of composing the film score to Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris. His success on that film score landed him a Grammy award and a recording contract with Impulse Records. It also launched a profitable side-career for Barbieri; he scored over a dozen films in three different continents.

By the late 1970s, Barbieri had shifted his focus again, this time to the pop jazz that was becoming prevalent at the time. During this phase of his career was recording for A&M Records. One of the most successful albums of that time, and one of the most successful of his career, was Caliente. The album featured a Barbieri's cover version of Carlos Santana's Europa. Another big album during his years with A&M Records was Shadow of the Cat. A&M label owner, and jazz trumpet great, Herb Alpert played the trumpet for three songs on that album.

Barbieri's wife died in the 1980s and six weeks after her passing he underwent triple bypass surgery. Because of the toll these events had on him, Barbieri disappeared from the public eye for quite some time. He returned in an impactful way in 1997; his Columbia Records release Que Pasa was the fourth best selling contemporary jazz album of that year.

In 2004, Universal Music honored Gato Barbieri by releasing a compilation of his work in their 20th Century Masters series. The other musicians to receive that honor in 2004 were Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Parker, and Carmen McRae. Gato was also honored by his home country the same year when the Argentine Ambassador to the United States presented him with a lifetime achievement award at the Argentine Consulate in New York City.

Gato Barbieri plays a Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophone with a short facing Berg Larsen Metal 105 mouthpiece and Rico 1 ½ reeds.

-Neal Battaglia

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