Album Reviews

The proliferation of Blue Note reissues on double vinyl, SACD and most recently XRCD has led to the inevitable negative reaction with some people complaining that the label’s mythological status is overblown.

Of course not every Blue Note is historical or significant or even worth hearing. The label had its share of dross you can be sure and even some of the good sessions sound predictable and formulaic with the passage of time.

While the label had its share of superstars, pianist/composer Freddie Redd wasn’t one of them. However, if I had to pick just one Blue Note to add to my collection, this record just might be it.

Certainly if you plan on adding a dozen or so of the available dizzying number of BN reissues, this needs to be among them.

Recorded in the summer of 1960, when he was just 31 years old and he’d already written the jazz score to the play “The Connection” and acted in it too, this album showcases a hard-edged young player well in his element flanked by emerging greats Jackie McClean on alto sax and Tina Brooks on tenor, backed by Paul Chambers on bass and Louis Hayes on drums performing a set of varied and compelling Redd originals.

When McClean and Brooks soar and dive, harmonizing together, which they do often throughout the album, the results are nothing less than spectacular.

Redd was in a deep yet often happy place here with his composing, whether on the cascading opener “Thespian” or the street-smart and hip “Blues-Blues-Blues” or on “Shadows,” side two’s moody, introspective ballad wherein Tina Brooks takes a solo that stops time and Louis Hayes caps it with a short, unexpected bass solo that builds a bridge to the flowing, sunset finale.

As far as I’m concerned, “Shadows” alone is worth the price of admission on this one, but there’s much more worthy of your attention, some of it up-tempo and tuneful like “Melanie,” and some playful, like the Caribbean influenced closer Olé.

Redd’s playing wasn’t flamboyant or flowery and with the exception of a few solos such as the one on the wonderfully melancholic “Just a Ballad For My Baby,” where Redd steps out front for a bit, Rudy almost buries him between the much louder Brooks and McLean flanking him right and left. The more you play this, though, the more you’ll come to appreciate Redd’s deceptively simple, yet tonally unusual note clusters and rhythmic bursts.

Rudy Van Gelder gets good textures and decent harmonic structures from both horn players and even Hayes’ bass avoids the bloat sometimes found on Van Gelder recordings of the era. Redd’s piano is somewhat distant between the speakers but the mix works by putting the rhythm section trio on the same plane and highlighting the horns.

This is far from the most famous or sought after Blue Notes, but in my book its among the best and it epitomizes all that was truly great about the Blue Note label.

Perhaps it’s a bit off the (well) beaten Blue Note path, but Shades of Redd got great balladry, up-tempo romps and consistently superb playing, making it one easy to recommend Blue Note even if you’ve never heard of it.