Joshua Redman
510 Embarcadero West, Oakland
September 25, 2025
I don’t usually make dinner reservations at Yoshi’s, as I prefer to just eat something light at the bar before a show, but we were celebrating libra season. Buying food pre-show is how you get decent seats at this Japanese restaurant that does double duty as the premiere jazz club in the Bay Area. The earlier the better.
It’s either that, or stand in line outside on the sidewalk for the worst seats in the house.
We went with miso soup, beet salad, tempura calamari, and grilled salmon, all of which were wonderful.
Born and raised in Berkeley, acclaimed saxophonist and composer Joshua Redman was returning to Yoshi’s after a 10 year hiatus. This was the first of a two night stint.
Josh is the son of tenor saxophonist and composer Dewey Redman. The elder Redman grew up in Texas, but became a bandleader in San Francisco during the free jazz era in the 1960s. Though not as well-known as his son, Dewey is well-respected by jazz aficionados.
Growing up in Berkeley, the younger Redman spent a lot of time at the Center for World Music, and was a member of Berkeley High’s world famous jazz ensemble. After graduating summa cum laude from Harvard with a social studies degree, Josh was accepted into Yale Law School, but instead chose to follow in his father’s footsteps.
Joshua Redman and his quartet perform "So It Goes."
He’s had quite the musical career. Over the past five decades, this Grammy-nominee has performed all over the world, including at the Kennedy Center Honors. Earlier this century, he served as the Artistic Director of SFJazz.
His picture graces the wall of this restaurant, and he’s as big as Yo-Yo Ma.
“It’s good to be back here at Yoshi’s,” Redman told the audience after the first song. “It hasn’t changed one bit,” he added. “And I haven’t aged one bit.”
Sporting a grey beard, grey sportscoat, and blue slacks, he joked with the crowd about being a local: “It’s such a treat to, well, not quite walk to work, but yeah, not have to get on a plane.”
“Thanks to Yoshi’s for still being here, so many great memories.”
Redman has played with greats from his father’s generation, as well as the best of his own era. Joining him on stage on this night was a new lineup composed of three of the top young jazz musicians in the world: Paul Cornish on piano, Philip Norris on bass, and Nazir Ebo on drums.
Accordingly, their eclectic set of modern jazz featured incredible solos that showcased top notch musicianship.
Redman vocalized in the middle of his own solos, functioning as his own hype man. His combination of tone, rhythm, timing, and range has put him in an elite class of musicians.
Norris was humming his solos as he performed them, and demonstrated superhuman finger strength on the upright bass. Cornish was a revelation all over the keys, displaying an impressive array of power and sensitivity. All four players demonstrated a mature knowledge of improvisational architecture, so despite the lack of a vocalist, there was still a lot of non-verbal storytelling going on.
Joshua Redman and his quartet perform "Ions" at Yoshi's on 9/25/25.
The quartet performed several original songs from their recent album, Words Fall Short, which was released on Blue Note in June. Their set covered multiple styles of jazz and included one standard, Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust.”
They started off with an unaccompanied Redman intro to “Message to Unsend.” When the band came in, the song was still slow and airy but then crescendoed during a second sax solo before returning to its airy beginning as an ending.
An uptempo, chaotic version of “So It Goes” (not the Taylor Swift song) came next, and all of the players showcased their broad range on this tune. “Borrowed Eyes” was a downtempo bluesy ballad, while “Over the Jelly Green Sea” had an easy listening smooth jazz feel. Redman switched from tenor to alto sax, and while drummer Ebo was always solid, he really stretched out on this particular tune.
“Lethal Formalities” could be described as a modernized take on hard bop, and featured Redman and Ebo trading eights.
Joshua Redman and his quartet perform "Amica."
Then, Ebo switched to brushes on “Amica,” another ballad.
When Redman introduced their last song, “Ions,” someone from the audience asked if the quartet would play any jazz standards. The bandleader reminded everyone that they had played “Stardust,” then added, somewhat jokingly, “This is gonna be a standard.” Norris led it off with a bass solo, and when the beat dropped, Ebo held it down with a funky yet loose groove on the drums. Redman played alto sax on this finale.
All in all, this quartet not only exceeded some lofty expectations, they blew them out of the water.
