CONCERT REVIEW – Joshua Redman Group 2/7/24 at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall

After releasing his highly-lauded “where are we” album last year, saxophonist Joshua Redman built a new band to play live the place-specific tunes on the album, which he made with A-list jazz stars.

Wednesday at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, he led three younger gents onstage, all four players in suits; plus a slim singer in a past-the-knee cocktail dress and how-does-she-walk-in-THOSE? red stilettos, a loose up-do piled taller than anyone else onstage.

The five then expanded the album’s songlist and played everything with a harder-edged attack. While the slow tempos in the early going wove a languid charm, uptempo numbers later found a thrilling force. 

The songs on “where are we” and onstage Wednesday cite place-names and atmospheres; grafting tunes together for dynamic or titular closeness, or contrast. They opened, for example, with “Chicago Blues,” a seamless sequence of vintage and new blues numbers. Far at the other end of the intensity spectrum came a late 16-minute suite built of the serene, romantic “Stars Fell on Alabama” and the anguished howl of lament “Alabama.”

Singer Gabrielle Cavassa, a “long drink of water,” as the woman behind me noted, added a physically reserved but vocally expressive element to the small-band dynamic Redman has long favored. However, she energetically revved things at the end along with the players. Redman played tenor sax throughout, unleashing his inner John Coltrane in “Alabama” but otherwise mostly flowing smooth, with tight trio support by pianist Paul Cornish, bassist Philip Norris and drummer Nazir Ebo.

Cavassa and Redman stood up front, retreating at times to stools on opposite stage aprons when the trio carried things. The two often played as partners. In the swinging/rocking “Chicago Blues,” Cavassa showed off a confident blues feel after a somewhat tentative start, and ended her vocal with wordless passages that perfectly set up Redman’s tenor coda. 

At times, they convincingly reached for a place among classic sax-and-singer tag teams: Lester Young with Billie Holiday, John Coltrane with Johnny Hartman, Stan Getz with (recently deceased) Astrid Gilberto. They used that seamless hand-off technique often in the 95-minute break-less set; just as the band listened and responded so closely to each other that the songs all had a strong flow. 

In the dramatic “Streets of Philadelphia,” Cornish started alone at a deliberate tempo that surged to a fiery rush as Redman changed his reed and drums, bass and vocal flowed into the melody. Cavassa handed off to Redman with that wordless croon thing, then as Redman played a low, slow passage, Ebo matched both his tone and cadence with Xerox-close tom riffs; quietly breathtaking. Redman turned, mid-solo, to smile back at him. 

A fan called, “So GOOD!” But Redman jokingly complained this broke his concentration: “Only insults, please!” he asked. Fat chance, man. 

A hesitation beat and slowed tempo introduced “Hotel California,” Cavassa at her most wistful before Redman took the melody, tossed it to the trio and retreated. After Cornish blues-bopped to a peak, Redman followed that mood into minor-key meditations before Cavassa joined in a skat sequence through a climactic tempo shift.

“By The Time I Get to Phoenix” rode a warm tenor and piano throb into a relaxed vocal after the first verse, staying mellow through a slow coda. “Autumn in New York” brought big vintage spice, Redman’s bluesy intro cueing the trio after his first clear melodic statement and Cavassa singing it bigger than Billie Holiday famously did, with Redman commenting closely. Here Norris took his first solo of the night, a brilliant blaze.

Another antique, “Rhode Island Is Famous For You,” began to change things up, with faster tempos, quicker transitions between short solos and a playful spirit. Cavassa earned applause here for her spunky singing and Norris again shone as the band blew it wide open.

“Stars Fell on Alabama” into “Alabama” offered the most startling contrast all night, the, emotional peak of the show. Cavassa caressed the romantic lyrics of “Stars” before Redman’s bold sax cries screamed Coltrane’s lament for the four young girls killed in a racist church bombing in the same state. He rocked his body, crouched, intense, passionate, as Cornish echoed Coltrane pianist McCoy Tyner’s pounding chord attack, Ebo went all Elvin Jones and Norris grooved right in the pocket.

“Where Are You?” let us down from the ceiling into a mellow mood, its melody a cousin to “Stars” in Cavassa’s soft vocal. Off they went, returning as awed standing-ovation applause still filled the Hall. Conferring briefly, they decided on “Baltimore” as encore. Redman honked hard on the intro to cue an all-in spirit, everybody on top of their game and very together.

Maybe uptempo tunes earlier in the set would have provided variety, but the slow to fast pacing built a powerful momentum.

The Songs

• Chicago Blues (mash-up of Count Basie/Jimmy Rushing’s “Going to Chicago” and Sufjan Stevens’s “Chicago”)
• Streets of Philadelphia (Bruce Springsteen)
• Hotel California (Eagles – not on the “where are we” album)
• By The Time I Get to Phoenix (Jimmy Webb, famously sung by Glen Campbell)
• Autumn In New York (Vernon Duke, sung by Ella Fitzgerald and [trumpeter] Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday with tenor sax by Flip Phillips – also not on “where are we,” the same with “Rhode Island” below)
• Rhode Island Is Famous For You (Howard Dietz, sung by Blossom Dearie)
• Stars Fell on Alabama/Alabama (Mash-up of “Stars” [Frank Perkins and Mitchell Parish; another classic Ella and Louis duet] with “Alabama” [John Coltrane])
• Where Are You? (Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson; hundreds of vocal versions including by the Hi-Lo’s, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan; and instrumentals by saxophonists Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins)
• Baltimore (Randy Newman; most famously sung by Nina Simone)