Familiarity breeds contempt. I begrudgingly paid $37.50 for a pocket-sized seat in the back row of the Folly Theater on Saturday, February 7. The event was the fifth time I’ve caught up with Joshua Redman in the past eleven years.
The saxophonist played the Folly Theater in 2019 (Plastic Sax review), collaborated with the Bad Plus at the Gem Theater in 2015 (my review for The Kansas City Star), and at the Folly in 2007 (Plastic Sax review). I also heard Redman at New York City’s Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in 2017 (Plastic Sax review).
Rather than harboring disappointment with the reliably excellent Redman, I was irritated by the propensity of jazz presenters in Kansas City to feature the same acts year after year. Kansas City apparently doesn’t share my fussiness. A near-capacity audience of almost 1,000 paid rapt attention to Redman, pianist Paul Cornish, bassist Philip Norris and drummer Nazir Ebo.
My gloom dissipated as it became apparent the quartet was operating at the apex of mainstream jazz. Compositions that sound flat on the 2025 album Words Fall Short were enlivened by elite interplay and stupendous solos. Yet allusions to more adventurous sounds provided the highlights of the 100-minute performance.
Redman’s fire-breathing introduction to a selection concluded with a piercing high note, causing an agitated woman in front of me to cover her ears. An extended unaccompanied solo by Cornish ranged from Art Tatum to Robert Glasper. Norris and Ebo made similarly prodigious statements.
As at Branford Marsalis’ outing at the Folly Theater eleven months ago, the Kansas City based drummer Carl Allen sat in with the band for one tune. While I might long for the likes of Mary Halvorson, I’ll never pass on an opportunity to hear Marsalis or Redman in Kansas City.
(Reed Jackson composed a more conventional review of Redman’s concert for Spectrum Culture.)