Saxophonist Joshua Redman was born in Berkeley, California on February 1, 1969. His father, Dewey Redman, was a well-known jazz saxophonist and his mother was a dancer studying at Berkeley’s Center for World Music. It was at the Center that young Joshua received some of his earliest musical experiences in a variety of musics from various cultures around the world. He began to play the clarinet at age nine and switched to tenor saxophone when he was ten. He played all four years in the award-winning jazz ensemble at Berkeley High School.

In 1991 Joshua Redman graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in Social Studies and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Although he had been accepted to Yale Law School, he took a year off from his studies and moved to Brooklyn, New York and was soon playing with musicians like Brad Mehldau, Roy Hargrove, Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden and Christian McBride. That same year he won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition and decided to pursue a career in music. He was soon signed by Warner Brothers Records and released his first record in early 1993. Later in 1993 his second album, “Wish,” was released and featured the Joshua Redman Quartet that consisted of Redman, Metheny, Haden and drummer Billy Higgins. That record reached #1 on the American jazz sales charts.

Since the mid-1990s Redman has performed with and led a number of small ensembles and has also appeared in the movie “Blues Brothers 2000” and on the PBS children’s television program “Arthur.” In 2000 Joshua Redman was named the Artistic Director for the SFJAZZ Collective and worked with that group through 2007. In recent years he has performed with the New Zealand Symphony, James Farm, the Rolling Stones, Yo Yo Ma, Umphrey’s McGee, Stevie Wonder and the Dave Matthews Band. He has also been heard with Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Clark Terry, Quincy Jones, Elvin Jones, Nicholas Payton, and Cedar Walton among many others.

Here is a link to Joshua Redman playing the title tune from his second album live at the 1993 Newport Jazz Festival:

"WISH"