The Bad Plus Joshua Redman

ジョシュア・レッドマン+ザ・バッド・プラスが生み出す、新たなジャズの錬金術!ライヴでの共演をきっかけに実現したサックス+ピアノ・トリオのニュー・カルテット、話題騒然間違い無しのアルバム発売!

A superstar jazz matchup, The Bad Plus Joshua Redman features maverick trio the Bad Plus joined by acclaimed jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman. Recorded after the group's weeklong stint at New York's Blue Note jazz club in 2012, the album is an organic collaboration between Redman and Bad Plus members pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer Dave King. Largely known for their genre-bending compositional take on jazz, here the Bad Plus take a more improvisational, open-ended approach to group interplay. Conversely, Redman, an adroit, long-form improviser, finds new avenues of jazz expression within the context of this new group sound. This conversational approach is perhaps best represented on the ensemble's reworking of the Bad Plus songs "Dirty Blonde" and "Silence Is the Question." While both songs retain the core vibe of the original recordings (bombastic in the case of the first and poignant in the second), here Redman brings a vibrant electricity to the compositions, widening their scope with his woody, vocal-like saxophone tone. While hearing these Bad Plus songs re-envisioned is intriguing, the core appeal of the album rests largely in Redman and the trio's newly composed pieces, like the languidly atonal "Beauty Has It Hard" and the frenetically rambling "County Seat." These tracks, as well as the gorgeously fractured Thelonious Monk-influenced "The Mending" and the dizzy, circular, Dave Brubeck-sounding "Friend or Foe," are compelling recordings that sound as modern and immediate as they do steeped in the acoustic jazz tradition. Ultimately, The Bad Plus Joshua Redman sounds less like a collaboration between two separate entities and more like the assured work of a unified band. ~ Matt Collar

ピアノレス・トリオやアーロン・ゴールドバーグ(p)らとのクラシック・クァルテットで忙しく世界各地でツアー生活を続けているジョシュア・レッドマン(sax)と、トリオとして円熟期に入った新世代ピアノトリオの老舗ザ・バッド・プラスとの共演盤。数年前には頻繁にツアーを行っていた彼らのコラボがようやく作品として陽の目を浴びた。知る人ぞ知る初期バッドプラスの名曲再演に加え、異色のコラボにいつになく自由奔放なジョシュアの吹きっぷりが聴きごたえあり。華々しく90年代にシーンに登場した彼らもいつしかベテランの境地に達したことをヒシヒシと感じさせる。コンテンポラリー・ジャズ20余年のひとつの到達点。
intoxicate (C)稲田利之