“I like to think of myself as an original. I have my own sound. That's not easy to come by, I worked on it for many years. But I like to think that I sound like Dewey Redman” –Dewey Redman 

Dewey Redman&cop;Andrea Canter

Dewey Redman once described himself as “survivor.” He survived criticism of the “free” music he played with Ornette Coleman in the late 60s, well before the jazz public was ready for the unusual harmonies of what was then known as “avant garde.” He survived prostate cancer (diagnosed in the late 90s), coming back to perform and record in the 21st century, playing into his 70s and outliving, outplaying many of his early cohorts. And he survived a fair amount of oversight, in his later years known more as the father of modern lion, Joshua Redman, despite his years as a singular artist with a very different style than his offspring. Dewey passed away on September 2, 2006, but his music and memory live on. The Artists Quarter, where Dewey last performed in 2004, will host its second tribute to the late saxophonist featuring some of his favorite Minnesota sidemen, on November 21-22. 

Growing up in the 30s in Ft. Worth, Texas, Dewey Redman heard Duke Ellington on his parents’ records. He also traces his musical inclinations to a man he later realized was most likely his uncle, the great bandleader Don Redman, whom he never met. At first he sought trumpet lessons, “because it had three keys. I figured I could work that out.” However, he was discouraged when the school music teacher told him “your lips are too big.” Instead, Dewey started out on clarinet in a church band at 13 and later played in his high school marching band with another young musician named Ornette Coleman. He was largely self taught, having “learned by trial and error and watching other saxophone players do what I do and asking them questions. That's the best lessons in the world.”  

Redman played alto and tenor in his college jazz band at Prairie View A & M, finally settling on the tenor. After a stint in the Army and years of teaching music while gigging on weekends, he moved to California in 1959, working with Pharoah Sanders and Wes Montgomery around the Bay Area; he moved to New York in the late 60s where he became a part of the avant garde scene with old pal Ornette Coleman. In addition to his work with Coleman, he displayed a talent for adapting to a wide range of styles, playing with Old and New Dreams (Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell), Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett, Carla Bley, and Haden’s Liberation Orchestra, and leading his own ensembles. “I like to play it all-styles as far as I can, because in my band we are playing the so-called avant-garde, a little be-bop, ballads, blues. I also play the musette… it comes from the Middle East. I try to do a variety of styles, because one style bores me.”   

PeteWhitman with Dewey Redman©Andrea Canter

And Gordy Johnson and Phil Hey, along with local great saxman Pete Whitman and young piano whiz Bryan Nichols, will be on hand to pay tribute to Dewey Redman at the Artists Quarter this weekend, November 21-22. 

One of the last of the great “Texas Tenors,” and perhaps more than any other, Dewey had a sound that defied classification, a style that was free yet melodic, beyond mainstream yet always accessible. It was a sound that, like Dewey himself, endured despite the ever-changing norms of the jazz audience. The AQ “Tribute to Dewey Redman” keeps the legend alive. 

“What I reach for first when I play is sound. Technique maybe, but there is technique in sound.” –Dewey Redman 

The Artists Quarter is located at 408 St. Peter Street in downtown St. Paul, in the lower level of the Hamm Building. Sets begin at 9 pm. Visit www.artistsquarter.com 

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