“Freedom in the Groove” Adam KolkerThe album “freedom in the Groove” features Joshua Redman with a small ensemble of Bass, electric guitar, and drums. In different songs Redman plays the alto, soprano and tenor saxophone. The CD shows many different aspects of Jazz, spanning many different feels, tempos and intonation.I was really impressed with the diversity of the album. The typical song on features Redman soloing over the standard rhythm section of the bass, piano and drum set. Occasionally Redman will trade solos with the piano or the guitar, but obviously the album mainly features the saxophone. Despite this, Redman and his small ensemble show an incredible amount of diversity. The CD starts out with what I would consider to be your typical Jazz tune, “Hide and Seek.” An alto saxophone soloing over the rhythm section, with the piano throwing in a little counter melody or even sharing the spot light with a solo or two. However, as soon as the second song begins I realized that there is a lot more to Joshua Redman than the “typical” jazz song. “One shining Soul” gives out a much more laid back feel to it. The Saxophone and guitar share the melody for much of the song giving me flash backs to the dentist office or an elevator. The group then picks up the pace with “Streams Of Consciousness” which features a much more up beat feel, making me want to tap my foot. Redman again takes the solo with an extremely fast pace, using the full range of the tenor sax. The thing I enjoyed most about this tune was the electric guitar solo toward the end. The laid back sound gives a big contrast to the up beat feel of the song. The remainder of the CD seems to have the feel of one of the first three songs, adding a little variety with some blues sound, a little call and response, and some stop time rhythm. However, I was really captivated by the sixth song on the...
