Back East

Back East is Joshua Redman's first recording in an acoustic-trio setting and his first all-acoustic outing since his 2001 Warner Bros disc, Passage of Time. Recorded in New York City, it features the Berkeley, California-based Redman with three different, all-star rhythms sections, and a few carefully chosen guest players, most notably his father Dewey, who, unfortunately, passed away shortly after this album was completed.

Redman mixes originals with standards, selected in part to pay tribute to the great sax players who've inspired him, including John Coltrane ('India'), Wayne Shorter ('Indian Song') and Stan Getz ('East of the Sun', a tune associated with Getz). Most significantly, he reinterprets two songs from Sonny Rollins' 1957 classic acoustic-trio set, Way Out West.

The three distinct rhythm sections Redman cut these tracks with are old friends and frequent collaborators of Redman's, as well as marquee names in contemporary jazz: bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Ali Jackson, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland. Joe Lavano, whom Redman calls "one of the greatest saxophonists to emerge in the post-Coltrane generation," guests on 'Indian Song'; Chris Cheek, whom Redman considers his biggest contemporary influence, sits in on Redman's own 'Mantra #5'. Dewey Redman plays tenor on a version of Coltrane's 'India', then performs alone on alto for the album's eloquent coda, an original Dewey Redman number called 'GJ', written as a gift for Josh's infant son – a track that turned out to be the final session of Dewey's life.