Freddie Redd

Freddie Redd earned recognition as a pianist, composer, and bandleader working in the American bebop and hard bop idioms. Although he never studied formally, he gained wide notice as an agile soloist whose resourceful left hand could generate both chords and countermelodies at once. Active as a leader and sideman from the middle of the 1950s onward, he became most closely identified with the score he wrote for Jack Gelber’s off-Broadway drama The Connection, presented by the Living Theatre and centered on heroin-dependent jazz musicians; Redd took one of the acting roles in the production as well. Blue Note issued the resulting music in 1960 as The Music from “The Connection,” a recording now regarded as one of the label’s signature releases, matched in stature by the 1961 quintet album Shades of Redd. Once his association with Blue Note ended, Redd traveled extensively and performed across many countries yet entered the studio only sporadically. The 1970s brought the trio albums Under Paris Skies and In Sweden. Late in that decade he settled in California and began recording for Interplay Records. Mosaic Records brought out The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Freddie Redd in 1989, restoring a previously unreleased session from the early 1960s. His last two projects, Music for You in 2015 and With Due Respect in 2016, both appeared on SteepleChase.

Born in New York City in 1928 to porter Freddie and homemaker Helen, Redd lost his father, himself a pianist, before the age of two; the family’s piano therefore remained available for the boy to explore. Although his mother relocated among the city’s boroughs, the instrument moved with them each time. Redd started teaching himself as soon as he could reach the keys, yet his first passion was drumming—an interest that later shaped his keyboard work through a pronounced emphasis on rhythmic drive and invention. While still a teenager in Harlem, he regularly cut school to hear Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Jay McShann, and Earl Hines at the Apollo Theater.

Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1946, Redd encountered Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker’s bebop recording “Shaw ’Nuff” through another soldier while stationed in South Korea, an experience that redirected his musical path. After his discharge in 1949 he returned to New York, where the skills acquired during service helped him secure engagements. From 1951 to 1954 he worked with trumpeter Cootie Williams and guitarist Tiny Grimes, the latter date yielding his earliest sideman recordings. His profile rose sharply in 1955 through appearances on albums by trumpeter Art Farmer, vibraphonist Joe Roland, and saxophonist Gene Ammons.

Also in 1955 Redd shared the Savoy two-piano date Piano: East/West with Hampton Hawes and issued Introducing the Freddie Redd Trio on Prestige. The next year he served as pianist for Rolf Ericson & the American All Stars. In 1957 he led a trio on Riverside’s San Francisco Suite; the following year the British Nixa label released Get Happy with Freddie Redd, featuring trumpeter Benny Bailey and bassist Tommy Potter.

Commissioned in 1959 to write new music for Jack Gelber’s The Connection, Redd performed in both the Living Theatre production and Shirley Clarke’s 1961 film adaptation alongside saxophonist Jackie McLean and fellow musicians. Blue Note signed him and issued the score as The Music from “The Connection” in 1960. The next year he recorded the quintet album Shades of Redd with McLean, saxophonist Tina Brooks, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Louis Hayes. A third Blue Note session remained unreleased after a disagreement with label head Alfred Lion until Mosaic brought it out in 1989.

Redd left the United States in 1962 for a prolonged period abroad, living and working in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, France, and England. His sole documented recording between 1961 and 1970 was an organ part on James Taylor’s debut single “Carolina in My Mind,” cut at Apple Studios in 1968. He resurfaced in 1971 with the trio album Under Paris Skies, using a French rhythm section, and in 1973 issued In Sweden with Potter and drummer Joe Harris. Returning to the States in 1974, he moved to California and divided the next fifteen years between Los Angeles and San Francisco, becoming an active participant in both regional jazz communities while leading a band that performed throughout Mexico and briefly residing in Guadalajara.

Straight Ahead!, recorded in 1977 with bassist Henry Franklin and drummer Carl Burnett, appeared on Interplay; the solo set Extemporaneous followed a year later. Redd continued working California clubs yet increasingly accepted resort engagements in Mexico that granted him freedom in repertoire and personnel, including several collaborations with drummer-composer Tino Contreras. He also revisited Europe for festivals, club dates, and tours.

The previously unheard 1961 Blue Note session Redd’s Blues surfaced in 1988 and was succeeded by Mosaic’s limited-edition box The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Freddie Redd. Back in New York, he cut the septet album Lonely City for Uptown in 1989, joined by Clifford Jordan, Ben Riley, and George Duvivier. Live at the Studio Grill, featuring drummer Billy Higgins and bassist Al McKibbon, came out in 1990, followed in 1991 by the Milestone sextet date Everybody Loves a Winner with saxophonist Teddy Edwards and trombonist Phil Ranelin.

In late 1991 Redd relocated to North Carolina to care for his mother, returning to New York after her death in 1995 and then settling in Pittsburgh for nearly a decade, from which base he continued international travel and performance. The 1998 release Freddie Redd and His International Jazz Connection appeared during that period. He moved to Baltimore, Maryland, in 2009 and undertook a major European tour in 2013 along with several recording sessions.

His SteepleChase debut, Music for You, recorded with bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Billy Drummond, was issued in 2015; the following year the label released the sextet session With Due Respect, adding trombonist John Mosca, saxophonist Chris Byars, and clarinetist Stefano Doglioni to the earlier trio. At age 87 Redd retired and returned to New York City. In January 2021 Bleebop Records of Washington, D.C., issued the previously unreleased 2013 recordings Baltimore Jazz Loft, a quartet co-led with bassist Butch Warren, and the quintet album Reminiscing, which included bassist Michael Formanek. Redd died of natural causes in March 2021 at the age of 93.