Passage Of Time
(Warner Bros.)
The golden boy of tenor saxophone returns with a sumptuous suite of originals that can only burnish his standing as one of the most glittering young talents in jazz.
This is Redman's sixth album as leader in as many years and he shows no signs of wavering from his quest to articulate where the music has been, and where it is headed.
The hard-bop exponent with the blueblood pedigree (his father was tenor great Dewey) has been hyped as the future of jazz since 1991, but it has taken time to win over some critics/ snobs who labelled him a talented technician lacking innovation. This latest offering should further hush the dissenters.
A companion piece of sorts to last year's meditative Beyond - he employs the same personnel of Aaron Goldberg on piano, Reuben Rogers on bass and Gregory Hutchinson on drums - Passage is a long-form outing in which interplay triumphs over solos.