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Freddie Redd
Male
Hollywood, CA
United States - Share
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I'M ALIVE & WELL & READY TO PLAY
Profile Information
- What is your profession?
- Musician, Songwriter, Composer, Actor
- What Instrument Do you Play?
- piano, composer
- Where Are you located?
- Hollywood, CA
- How did you find out about TGJN?
- Dr. Nelson Harrison
- About Me:
profile. After a period in the Army (1946-49), Redd worked with drummer Johnny Mills and then in New York played with Tiny Grimes (with whom he recorded), Cootie Williams, Oscar Pettiford and the Jive Bombers. Redd, who appeared with both jazz and early R&B groups, recorded his debut as a leader for Prestige in 1955 (reissued in the OJC series), appeared on dates led by Gene Ammons and Art Farmer, and toured Sweden in 1956 with Ernestine Anderson and Rolf Ericson, cutting an obscure trio set in Sweden for the Metronome label. When he returned to the U.S., Redd settled for a time in San Francisco, where he worked as the house pianist at Bop City and recorded for Riverside. He found his greatest fame when he wrote the music for the play The Connection. He acted and played in the landmark show in New York, London and Paris, was in the film, and recorded the music for Blue Note, the first of his three sessions for the label (all of which were reissued on a Mosaic limited-edition box set as two-CD sets). Unfortunately, there were no encore writing assignments, and Redd soon moved to Europe, where he performed regularly but became quite obscure in the U.S. In 1974, he moved to Los Angeles, but despite worthy sessions for Interplay (1977), Uptown (1985), Triloka (1988) and Milestone (1990), Freddie Redd remains an underrated great, still playing in his prime without gaining much recognition. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
Note: I have not been low profile by my own choice. I am alive, healthy and available to play festivals, clubs, clinics, recordings, etc. I have many new compositions that have not been heard.
Freddie Redd that is- consummate improvising keyboardist/composer whose original score on Blue Note for Jack Gelber's searing play “The Connection” reverberates eternally down the marble halls of the charm(ed) school of indelible jazz, thanks to Freddie's bewitching melodicism, nimble pianistic pyrotechnique, and the keening cry of Jacke McLean on alto (there's also a recording of Freddie's score on Felsted acquired on a Japanese cd reissue some years ago, with trumpeter Howard McGhee an extra added ingredient in the original mix, his quintet actually listed as the featured artist, Freddie ghosting his own parts under the moniker “I Ching”)
Outside of Herbie Nichols, Freddie Redd is one of the greatest unsung ivory-huntin' heroes of jazz and a very nice man for sure.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=18477
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At Merkin Concert Hall's Re-issue “Classic Recordings Live" series. Monday February 19, 2007 at 8.00pm, they presented “Re-connected". The Freddie Redd Quartet, with Lou Donaldson at Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th Street, New York, N.Y. 10023.
REVIEW:
A Jazz “comeback" story; forgotten 'Be-bop' pianist and stage actor Freddie Redd re-emerged from obscurity to perform the music he wrote for the 1960 Obie award-winning play “The Connection". Alto Saxophonist Lou Donaldson filled in for the late Jackie McLean, along with Bassist Mickey Bass and Drummer Louis Hayes. Alto Saxophonist Donald Harrison joined them for the second part of the program.
Freddie is given a hero's welcome, tumultuous ovation by the nearly sold-out, ecstatically cheering crowd where he plays to a joyous whooping throng which included many luminaries. Freddie was in tremendous form with his fluid technique and improvisational genius on full display, fully undimmed over the years, and in the excellent company of hard bop saxmen Lou Donaldson or smoking Donald Harrison.
One cliff-hanging moment occurred at a New York, when stalwart veteran bassist Mickey Bass's hand seized up at the top of the second set with Redd. Without a moment's hesitation young Dwayne Burno came up out of the audience, jumped onstage, stepped up to the plate, picked up Mickey's acoustic bass while they guided the ailing older jazzman gingerly offstage...and without missing more than about 4 bars without bass proceeded to kick it up a notch, or 2, or 3--BAM!!--(as in, Bassist A Mofo...or au Go Go...life's a flow-flow)--to the bass manner born, in other words (in point of fact Dwayne as it turns out is Donald Harrison's regular bassist and had actually played most of these Redd compositions before...so it wasn't QUITE the miracle it looked to be to the crowd...still, it was pretty damn awe-inspiring, as young Dwayne literally saved the day for the night. As with so many overlooked artists, you couldn't exactly call this a comeback gig for Freddie Redd (although it was billed along those lines)--as his musical gifts had never deserted him.
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Born in New York City, May 29, 1928, Freddie Redd has seen and made a lot of music. Although his recordings are sparse, his talent is immense, both as a composer and performer. While he was exposed to music early it wasn't until he was in the military, in 1946, that it was clear what he was going to do with his life. In his own words:
“...it just blew my mind! it was Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie playing SHAW' NUFF. Now I'd learned a little boogie woogie to fool around with “ but when I heard that I thought 'This is something that I got to do.'” From that point on Freddie didn't waste anytime. After the military he went to New York City and got a firsthand account of the new jazz scene.
But a more significant outcome from New York, was the opportunity to record 3 albums on the Blue Note label, Music from The Connection, Shades of Redd, and a long unreleased third session. In addition it was during this time that Freddie played with many of the finest artists of the day including Art Blakey, Coleman Hawkins, Tina Brooks, Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, Lou Donaldson, and many others. It was Mingus who brought him to the west coast, which is where he wrote the San Francisco Suite recorded on Riverside.
His most recent work is Freddie Redd and his International Jazz Connection featuring original music composed by the pianist and featured in the world's first Jazz Video Album in his own words. Released in 1998 the album is dedicated to Representative John Conyers, the democrat from Michigan who authored House Resolution 57 designating jazz as America's national treasure.
While there are not many recordings of Freddie Redd and he may be hard to catch up with, he keeps busy performing and composing. And thanks to a Mosaic release of all the Blue Note recordings in 1989, a resurgence of interest in his work has occurred. Of course if you ask Freddie, he'll tell you he's been here, making music, all the time.
FREDDIE REDD QUARTET WOWS PARIS AT DUC DES LOMBARDS JAZZ CLUB - July 22-23, 2008
Freddie Redd - piano, Jessie Davis - alto sax, Doug Sides - drums, Jerome Johnson - bass
Freddie Redd's Photos
Freddie Redd's Blog
MY FRIEND PANNONICA
This recent article in the New York Times brought back many memories of my friend Nica. We hung out at her place and I went out with her and Monk in her Rolls to Broadway shows, etc. Hello to Janka if you see this post.
Freddie
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
Music
The Baroness of Jazz
Pannonica De Koenigswarter
Article Tools Sponsored By
By BARRY SINGER
Published: October 17, 2008
IF the mysterious Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter is at all remembered t… Continue
Posted on October 19, 2008 at 12:30pm — 1 Comment
NEW YORK TIMES LISTING - 2007
Jazz Listings
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: February 16, 2007
RECONNECTED: THE FREDDIE REDD QUARTET (Monday) In the late 1950s, the pianist Freddie Redd wrote music for “The Connection,” a landmark Off Broadway play in which he also appeared onstage. Released on Blue Note, the subsequent album became a hard-bop classic, though that didn’t prevent Mr. Redd from slipping into obscurity. He resurfaces here with the bassist Mickey Bass and the drummer Louis Hayes; Donald Harrison inherits the… Continue
Posted on June 5, 2008 at 10:38pm —
VARIETY REVIEW - 2007
Recently Reviewed
Freddie Redd Quartet
(Merkin Concert Hall; 445 seats; $35 top)
By DAVID SPRAGUE
Presented by Kaufman Center. Musicians: Freddie Redd, Lou Donaldson, Donald Harrison, Mickey Bass, Louis Hayes. Reviewed Feb. 19, 2007.
Pianist Freddie Redd was one of the more mercurial characters on the Big Apple jazz scene of the late '50s and early '60s, darting around the edges of both the hard bop scene and the avant-garde theatrical realm -- and forging a powerful bond between the two by sco… Continue
Posted on June 5, 2008 at 10:36pm —
THE NEW YORK POST - 2007
RADIO: TODAY, FRIDAY (2/16), WKCR’S OUT TO LUNCH features “THE CONNECTION” (Noon – 3pm)
WKCR’s Ben Young hosts a review of music created in connection with Redd’s classic soundtrack to Jack Gelber's milestone 1959 off-broadway play;
Including the classic Blue Note recording in full, plus related versions from Redd and contemporaries
(89.9FM =or= http://www.wkcr.org)
RADIO: MONDAY, (2/19), WNYC’s Leonard Lopate Show (12:30pm-1pm)
*INTERVIEW WITH FREDDIE REDD**
(93.9FM / AM 820 =or= http:/… Continue
Posted on June 5, 2008 at 10:33pm —
NEW YORK SUN ARTICLE - 2007
Redd Relives His Finest Hour
Jazz
By WILL FRIEDWALD
February 16, 2007
The surprise off-Broadway hit of the 1959–60 session was a drama with music in which both halves of the equation — the play, the music, and the way they complemented each other — were completely unlike any other production before or since. This was "The Connection," a wildly successful, avantgarde theater piece that eventually led to an equally far-out experimental film, two all-time classic jazz albums, and, this Monday, a c… Continue
Posted on June 5, 2008 at 10:28pm —
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