Always in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time: Dewey Redman

Although he was at times part of many major Jazz groups, tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman (1931-2006) was never well known, even in advanced Jazz circles. That’s because, says The Sydney Morning Herald’s John Shand, Redman was more interested in sound than technique and decided to lead his own group at the most inopportune time. That happened in the early 1980s, when Redman, a Fort Worth native like alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman and who had formerly been part of the Coleman quartet, was simultaneously a member of bassist Charlie Haden‘s Liberation Music Orchestra, pianist Keith Jarrett‘s quartet and Old and New Dreams with trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell. But the self-described “country boy in the big city” split with them all, determined to be recognized for his own talents. It didn’t happen and in subsequent years he was overlooked in favor of other, flashier, tenor saxophonists, including his formerly estranged son, Joshua Redman.