Dewey Redman


Walter Dewey Redman was an American saxophonist who performed free jazz as a bandleader, and as a member of bands including those led by Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett.
Redman mainly played tenor saxophone, though he occasionally also played alto, the Chinese suona, and clarinet. His son is saxophonist Joshua Redman.

Biography

Redman was born in Fort Worth, Texas. He attended I.M. Terrell High School, and played in the school band with Ornette Coleman, Prince Lasha, and Charles Moffett. After high school, he briefly enrolled in the electrical engineering program at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama but became disillusioned with the program and returned home to Texas. In 1953, he earned a bachelor's degree in Industrial Arts from Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical University. While at Prairie View, he switched from clarinet to alto saxophone, then to tenor. After graduating, he served for two years in the U. S. Army.
After his discharge from the Army, Redman began working on a master's degree in education at the University of North Texas. While working on his degree, he taught music to fifth graders in Bastrop, Texas and worked as a freelance saxophonist at night and weekends in Austin, Texas. In 1957, he graduated in Education with a minor in Industrial Arts. While at North Texas, he did not enroll in any music classes.
In 1959 he moved to San Francisco, resulting in a collaboration with clarinettist Donald Garrett.
Redman was best known for his 1968-1972 collaboration with saxophonist Ornette Coleman, with whom he had performed in his Fort Worth high school marching band. He also played in pianist Keith Jarrett's American Quartet. Jarrett's The Survivors' Suite was voted Jazz Album of the Year by Melody Maker in 1978. In the 1970s Redman formed the quartet Old and New Dreams with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Ed Blackwell. They recorded four albums in the period to 1987.
Redman recorded as a sideman with Paul Motian and Pat Metheny. In 1981 he performed at the Woodstock Jazz Festival for the tenth anniversary of the Creative Music Studio. He was the subject of the award-winning documentary film Dewey Time directed by Daniel Berman.
On February 19 and 21, 2004, he played tenor saxophone as a special guest with Jazz at Lincoln Center in a concert entitled "The Music of Ornette Coleman". Reviewing the performance, Howard Mandel wrote, "Redman, a veteran of Coleman's bands, played on 'Ramblin' and 'Peace', demonstrating more originality, maturity and conviction than anyone else on the bandstand."
Redman died of liver failure in Brooklyn, New York, on September 2, 2006.

Discography

As leader

Look for the Black Star Tarik The Ear of the Behearer Coincide Musics Soundsigns Red and Black in Willisau with Ed Blackwell The Struggle Continues Living on the Edge Choices featuring Joshua Redman African Venus featuring Joshua Redman – recorded in 1992In London – recorded in 1996Momentum Space with Cecil Taylor and Elvin Jones – recorded in 1998

As [Old and New Dreams]

With Ed Blackwell, Don Cherry and Charlie HadenOld and New Dreams Old and New Dreams Playing

As sideman

With Jane BunnettIn Dew Time Radio Guantánamo: Guantánamo Blues Project, Vol. 1
With Ornette ColemanNew York Is Now! Love Call Ornette at 12 Crisis Friends and Neighbors: Live at Prince Street Live in Paris 1971 The Belgrade Concert Science Fiction Broken Shadows The Complete Science Fiction Sessions
With Charlie Haden's Liberation Music OrchestraLiberation Music Orchestra The Ballad of the Fallen Dream Keeper
With Keith JarrettEl Juicio Birth Expectations Fort Yawuh Treasure Island Death and the Flower Back Hand Shades Mysteries The Survivors' Suite Bop-Be Eyes of the Heart
With Paul MotianMonk in Motian Trioism
With Michel BenitaPreferences Soul
With others