Freddie Redd

小简介 Freddie Redd (1928~) 来自纽约，他是杰出的爵士钢琴家与制作人，却在音乐史上没有获得同等的尊敬和掌声。虽然他的作品不多，却无法掩盖其丰富洋溢的才华。 生于音乐家庭，父亲也是钢琴家，不过在他还未满一岁时便过世，母亲一直在教堂诗歌班献唱， Freddie Redd 在音乐上的学习几乎是无师自通。 1946-49 年他成为美国军人，在军队的期间，听到 Charlie Parker 与 Dizzy Gillespie 一同演奏的歌曲 SHAW' NUFF，在惊为天人而深受影响下，他写了这段话:"…it just blew my mind! it was Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie playing SHAW' NUFF。 Now I'd learned a little boogie woogie to fool around with – but when I heard that I thought 'This is something that I got to do。" 可见在当时他便立下往后的生涯志向，退伍后与鼓手 Johnny Mills 工作了一段时间便搬到纽约和 Cootie Williams， Oscar Pettiford， Jive Bombers， Tiny Grimes一同表演 (并与 Tiny 一起录音)， Freddie Redd 同时参与爵士与 R&B 乐团， 1955 年首次在 Prestige 旗下以个人为首发行专辑 Introducing the Freddie Redd Trio (后来在 OJC 系列重新发行)， 1956 年他与 Ernestine Anderson， Rolf Ericson展开瑞典巡回，在 Metronome 发行了一张黯然失色的专辑 Freddie Redd in Sweden。 回到美国后，他移居旧金山以钢琴师自居，为爵士厂牌 Riverside 工作录音， 1960 年 Freddie Redd 负责为 Jack Gelber 写的一出舞台剧 The Connection制作配乐，很快地开始声名大噪，在纽约，伦敦与巴黎等一流的剧院里表演，由于这出剧的关系，他在 Blue Note 录下这些音乐，收录在一张名为 Music from The Connection 专辑里，因为这张专辑的关系，他登上个人音乐生涯的第一波高峰。 在 Blue Note 的这段期间他与许多优秀的爵士乐手们一起表演，包括 Art Blakey， Coleman Hawkins， Tina Brooks， Sonny Rollins， Charles Mingus， Lou Donaldson 等， 因为这层关系， Freddie Redd 得到 Charlie Mingus 的帮忙，带他到西岸开辟爵士疆土， 1957 年 10 月， Freddie Redd 如愿在 Riverside 旗下发行了 San Francisco Suite for Jazz Trio 这张专辑，并获得很高的评价。 为了延续 The Connection 的成功， Freddie Redd 很希望能继续参与舞台剧的写作与演出，同年他在 Blue Note 发行另一张专辑 Shades Of Redd，这张专辑 Freddie Redd 包办所有歌曲的编写，以自己为首，搭配高音萨克斯风手 Tina Brooks，中音萨克斯风手 Jackie McLean，贝斯手 Paul Chambers 与鼓手 Louis Hayes，你可以在这张些歌曲里感受到浓烈的情愫与画面，这张专辑获得 all music 五星满分的高评价，甚至还超过 Music from The Connection 的四颗半星。 可惜的是录制完这张专辑后并没有获得 Blue Note 的续约， Freddie Redd 便失望的搬到欧洲，他在欧洲期间均有固定演出机会，不过却一直默默无名，没有建立起知名度。14年后他搬回美国洛杉矶，陆续在一些厂牌发行专辑，乐迷与乐评们对他的印象却还停留在 The Connection，虽然如此，Freddie Redd 依然一本初衷的在音乐领域上持续自己的表演和创作。 by Scott Yanow A classic bop pianist and a composer of haunting melodies, Freddie Redd has had an episodic career, with high points followed by periods in which he maintained a low profile. After a period in the Army (1946-49), Redd worked with drummer Johnny Mills and then in New York played with Tiny Grimes (with whom he recorded), Cootie Williams, Oscar Pettiford and the Jive Bombers. Redd, who appeared with both jazz and early R&B groups, recorded his debut as a leader for Prestige in 1955 (reissued in the OJC series), appeared on dates led by Gene Ammons and Art Farmer, and toured Sweden in 1956 with Ernestine Anderson and Rolf Ericson, cutting an obscure trio set in Sweden for the Metronome label. When he returned to the U.S., Redd settled for a time in San Francisco, where he worked as the house pianist at Bop City and recorded for Riverside. He found his greatest fame when he wrote the music for the play The Connection. He acted and played in the landmark show in New York, London and Paris, was in the film, and recorded the music for Blue Note, the first of his three sessions for the label (all of which were reissued on a Mosaic limited-edition box set as two-CD sets). Unfortunately, there were no encore writing assignments, and Redd soon moved to Europe, where he performed regularly but became quite obscure in the U.S. In 1974, he moved to Los Angeles, but despite worthy sessions for Interplay (1977), Uptown (1985), Triloka (1988) and Milestone (1990), Freddie Redd remains an underrated great, still playing in his prime without gaining much recognition.