Freddie Redd

Pianist and composer Freddie Redd remains one of the underrated figures of hard bop, and Shades Of Redd is the record that best explains why he deserves more attention. Recorded in August 1960 and released by Blue Note in 1961, it consists entirely of his own compositions. They are played by a quintet with two of the label's most distinctive saxophonists.

Redd had first come to notice as the composer of the score for the stage play The Connection, in which he also appeared as an actor playing a jazz pianist. His Blue Note debut, earlier in 1960, was a recording of that music. For this second date he brought in Jackie McLean on alto saxophone and Tina Brooks on tenor, with Paul Chambers on bass and Louis Hayes on drums. Rudy Van Gelder recorded the session at his Englewood Cliffs studio on August 13, 1960, and Nat Hentoff wrote the liner notes.

The seven pieces show Redd's gift for themes with a strong dramatic shape. Thespian opens the album with a slow, brooding melody before breaking into a full gallop, a fitting start for a composer who had worked in the theatre. Blues-Blues-Blues has a swaggering gait, and Shadows is a twilit ballad. The second side moves through Melanie, Swift and Just A Ballad For My Baby before closing on Olé. Later CD reissues added alternate takes of Melanie and Olé, while this LP keeps the original seven-track sequence.

In a five-star AllMusic review, Michael G. Nastos called the album Redd's "crowning achievement" within a discography he found all too small. He also saw it as proof that lesser-known players had a perspective of their own to offer beside the giants of the genre.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl edition is stereo and all-analogue, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.