Joshua Redman

Still Dreaming

Nonesuch

On his last visit to Scotland, saxophonist Joshua Redman featured in a sensational partnership with maverick New York combo the Bad Plus. His latest group would be equally welcome.

Working with cornetist Ron Miles, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade, Redman invokes the spirit of the band his late father, Dewey featured in during the 1970s and 1980s, Old and New Dreams. And while this is mostly new music, a revisiting of Playing, the title track from Old and New Dreams’ third album, and of both groups’ guiding light, Ornette Coleman’s Comme Il Faut emphasises just how close is their kinship.

The approach is free-spirited but with each player bringing logic, shape, hunger and direction to a style drawing on folk, blues and gospel influences. In taking the Don Cherry role, Miles plays with a great variety of attack, including a lovely muted tone that gives way to a full-blooded cry on Comme Il Faut, and he and Redman’s bluesy commingling makes the ballad Haze and Aspirations all the more affecting. At less than three minutes, It’s Not the Same, propelled by Blade’s glorious bounce, is not alone in leaving the listener wanting more.