Jazz
Joshua Redman has put out “God Bless the Child”, the first track to be heard from “If Ever You Would Leave Us (we play for Rollins)”, the album he dedicates to Sonny Rollins and which comes out on 20 November on Blue Note.
Rollins died on 25 May this year, aged 95, at his home in Woodstock, in New York State. He had stopped performing in public in 2012 because of pulmonary fibrosis and announced his retirement in 2014.
The tune is not Rollins’s —it is by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr.— but Rollins recorded it for “The Bridge”, from 1962, and Redman follows his arrangement and harmonisations. Gabrielle Cavassa sings, with Peter Bernstein on guitar, Christian McBride on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums. The full album also features Larry Grenadier, Kevin Hays, Chris Potter and Cécile McLorin Salvant.
“I discovered Sonny Rollins right around the time I picked up the saxophone, at age 10 or 11,” Redman says. “That was my eureka moment… hearing Sonny made me understand: It awakened me to the true power and potential of jazz improvisation.” Elsewhere in the label’s notes he calls Rollins “my gateway, and my North Star”.
Text by Aina Torrents