MUSIC

Almost twenty years ago, saxophonist Joshua Redman stepped into the jazz spotlight, and he's been going from strength to strength ever since. The son of the revered tenorman Dewey Redman, Joshua played in the Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble (and attended Stanford Jazz Workshop) but initially planned to be a lawyer. However, in 1991, he won first place in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, heralding his future as one of the most commercially successful and technically formidable saxophonists of his generation.

Redman's tone is warm, rich, and distinctive, and his improvisations dart nimbly from the horn's lowest register into the stratosphere and back. He has amassed multiple Grammy nominations and sold hundreds of thousands of CD's; he was also the Artistic Director of the SFJAZZ Spring Season from 2000-2007 and Director of the SFJAZZ Collective from 2004 to 2007.

Redman's 2009 albumm Compass has been lauded as the "crowning achievement of his career" (-All About Jazz) and a "dazzling album of considerable artistry" (-BBC Music UK). Joshua Redman has repeatedly proved himself to be "one of the most formidable tenor players of his generation" (-San Francisco Chronicle).