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This event is part of the 2024 Mt. Hood Jazz Festival, sponsored by Conn-Selmer, held May 3-5 in the College Theatre of Mt. Hood Community College (May 3-4) and at venues in Gresham and Troutdale (May 5).Weekend passes are available at a discounted rate. Children under 12 are free with a reservation.
The 2024 MHJF is proud to present the Joshua Redman Group featuring Gabrielle Cavassa!
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From its inception, the Blue Note label has stood for “The Finest In Jazz.” The same can be said for Joshua Redman. Over the past three decades, the saxophonist, composer, and bandleader has consistently demonstrated how to honor the music’s verities while expanding its reach in contemporary settings. On where are we, Redman’s first recording as a Blue Note artist, he delivers one of his most challenging and compelling albums to date, in a program featuring typically brilliant supporting partners and (in a first for Redman) built around a dynamic vocalist.
He found the perfect partner in young vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa. “I had maybe heard Gabrielle’s name from her time in the Bay Area,” Redman notes, “but I wasn’t at all familiar with her music. Once I heard Gabrielle, I realized that she has an expressive quality and an intimacy and a vulnerability in her sound that is singularly captivating.”
Finding musicians who fit the needs of what is fundamentally a ballads album was the relatively easy part for Redman, who has formed more memorable ensembles than can be counted on the fingers of one hand. He found them in drummer Brian Blade, whose relationship with the saxophonist goes back to the beginnings of their respective careers; pianist Aaron Parks, a partner in the collective quartet James Farm; and more recent associate Joe Sanders on bass.
For added perspective, Redman invited four other friends to contribute to the portraits of their native cities: guitarists Kurt Rosenwinkel (“Streets of Philadelphia”) and Peter Bernstein (“Manhattan”), vibraphonist Joel Ross (“Chicago Blues”), and trumpeter Nicholas Payton (“Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?”).
The final word is given to a composition with a more amorphous locale. “‘Where Are You?’ is one of the last songs we thought about doing,” the saxophonist recalls. “I knew that Gabrielle played some guitar, and I thought about adding a bossa nova touch… It really clicked for all of us in the studio — one of the rare times where we were all listening together in the control room on playback and were like, ‘yeah, cool, this works, it’s good, we’re done.’… It only hit me later, listening to the rough a few weeks after the session, that Gabrielle could be singing this song about America, to America; and at that moment one of the central themes of the project became clear.” What began as a formal concept allowing two unacquainted artists to organize their ideas – something that could be discarded if necessary over time – had gained a deeper significance.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Mt. Hood Community College, 26000 SE Stark St, Gresham, OR 97030-3300, United States,Gresham, Oregon
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