Joshua Redman Quartet — North Sea Jazz Festival, 1994

On 8 July 1994, in the Jan Steen Zaal of the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague, American saxophonist Joshua Redman presents his brand-new quartet. A Harvard graduate and winner of the 1991 Thelonious Monk Competition, Redman was then emerging as one of the leading voices of 1990s neo-bop and acoustic jazz. Filmed in high definition by the festival archive, this full concert captures a rising musician with a warm tone and remarkable fluidity, backed by a virtuosic rhythm section. In front of the Dutch audience of one of the world’s largest jazz festivals, the quartet plays with great freedom, moving between swing, blues and collective improvisation. This live recording documents a pivotal moment in Joshua Redman’s career, at the very start of his first regular quartet. A valuable filmed live concert for fans of contemporary jazz and for understanding the vitality of the acoustic scene in the mid-1990s.