Don Redman Biography
Donald Matthew Redman, 29 July 1900, Piedmont, West Virginia, USA, d. 30 November 1964, New York City, New York, USA. A gifted child, alto saxophonist Redman studied extensively and by his graduation had mastered most of the wind instruments and was also adept at arranging. He then joined a territory band based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with whom he visited New York. This was in 1923 and by the following year he had begun a musical relationship with Fletcher Henderson that was to alter perceptions of big band jazz. In 1927 he took over leadership of McKinney's Cotton Pickers, continuing to develop the arranging style with which he had experimented while with Henderson. In 1931 Redman formed his own band which remained in existence for almost a decade. During this period Redman wrote charts for numerous other big bands and after his own unit folded he pursued this aspect of his career, writing for Jimmy Dorsey, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Harry James and many others.
In 1946 he formed a new band, taking it to Europe and subsequently worked in radio and television. For several years he was musical director for Pearl Bailey, occasionally recording and dedicating what time he could spare to composing. Originally inspired by the creative genius of Louis Armstrong, who joined the Henderson band while he was arranger, Redman went on to lay down many of the ground rules for much of what is today regarded as "big band music". In his work for Henderson, the Cotton Pickers and his own band he consistently demonstrated his confident grasp of all arranging techniques in use up to his time, extending them to prove that an arranged format need not lose the spontaneity of an improvised performance and, indeed, could enhance the work of a good jazz soloist. In particular, his writing for the reed and brass sections, in which he set up call-and-response passages, while polished to perfection by such successors as Sy Oliver, has rarely been improved upon.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
|
