Charleston Jazz Festival: Joshua Redman Group–WHERE ARE WE TOUR

Joshua Redman is one of the most acclaimed and charismatic jazz artists on the scene today. Born in Berkeley, California, he is the son of legendary saxophonist Dewey Redman and dancer Renee Shedroff. In 1991, Redman graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude and had already been accepted by Yale Law School, but deferred entrance for what he believed was only going to be one year. Instead, he moved to New York City and immediately found himself immersed in the city’s burgeoning jazz scene. Five months later, Redman was named the winner of the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition. Since then, Redman has worked and played with a vast array of jazz luminaries, released over 20 albums (Warner & Nonesuch) and garnered top honors in critics and reader polls of DownBeat, Jazz Times, The Village Voice and Rolling Stone.

The Charleston Jazz Festival is thrilled to be one of the presenters of Joshua Redman Group’s Where We Are tour in collaboration with Gabrielle Cavassa. The concept of Where We Are is rather simple: each of the songs makes reference to a specific geographical location in the United States: Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Streets of Philadelphia,’ Count Basie’s ‘Going To Chicago,’ Rodgers & Hart’s ‘Manhattan,’ John Coltrane’s ‘Alabama’ and more. Simply stated, this tour is based on an album about America.

Where We Are is perhaps above all a meditation on the power and importance of place—the unique human beauty created when we locate ourselves in shared physical spaces together with others; the loss, anomie, and angst suffered when we divide ourselves unnaturally and unjustly apart.

The Charleston Jazz Festival is sponsored in part by MUSC.