Dewey Redman has died of liver failure, aged 75. The tenor saxophonist and musette player had a distinctive voice, imbued equally with the colours and textures of his Texan upbringing and the syntax and sensibilities of the
avant-garde. He contributed significantly to the bands of Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett, among others, and worked with single-minded dedication to develop his own music. Dewey was widely respected by other musicians and discerning jazz fans around the world, even if he didn’t always get the wider recognition his talent richly deserved.
Dewey made many friends in Australia during his four visits. He performed with Old and New Dreams in 1981 and returned in 1986 to play with the Bernie McGann Trio in a series of SIMA-organised concerts, States of the Art, at the Performance Space in Sydney. He played with his long-time collaborator, the drummer Eddie Moore and pianist Geri Allen, in 1988 and, lastly, in 1994 with Skip Hadden.
Sydney drummer and bandleader John Pochee played with Dewey as part of the Bernie McGann Trio during the saxophonist’s 1986 tour. Here John remembers their meeting and his subsequent friendship. He begins with Dewey’s last trip to Australia.
I went down to the Basement to see him when he was here the time Lloyd [Swanton] played. He had heard I had been unwell, which was nothing to do with alcohol, and rushed up to greet me. It was interval when I got there and he spent most of it lecturing me on the evils of the demon drink. By the time he had finished, I realised that he was well away himself and did a very funny but great last set, singing and having a lot of fun with the audience.
Looking back on my diary brought back a few memories. I remember that Lloyd was advertised as playing in 1986 but went off somewhere else. Sydney did not have a suitable player in town at that time so we brought Geoff Kluke up from Melbourne. We asked Jane March to get Dewey to send the music ahead so we could have a look at it beforehand.
Dewey arrived a couple of days early and there was a sudden chance to promote him on some ABC show. None of the others could be found and I remember Dewey and myself playing Half-Nelson as a duo.
He said he had sent the music but when we had the rehearsal a couple of days later it still had not arrived. At the rehearsal, we played a couple of his songs that were simple heads and some be-bop things for about an hour and then he said, “To tell you the truth, this is much better than I expected. See you at the gig.”
The next day Bernie told us that a package of papers with notes written on them had arrived, including the back of receipts and a couple of brown paper bags. He said there were no bar lines between the notes and we never saw them but Bernie has always claimed he has them somewhere.
The first gig he did was as guest with The Last Straw at the Domain concert. I was amazed that he told me he had never played before a crowd that big in his life. When he was introduced he could not be found and after we had started he ran on playing, although he had never heard the tune before and just slotted in with Bernie and Ken. We did 3 gigs in Sydney and one in Perth.
Dewey was a battler like all of us. He just wanted to play and have his glass of wine and a fag, and he was happy. I seem to remember that he stayed at someone’s house in Newtown and I bumped into him in the street one day. He was carrying a cask of wine and some groceries and was rushing off home.
He never told anyone what to play and seemed quite happy with everything. We even went to the Cross after one of the concerts one night and jammed on.
After the concerts he sometimes drank wine with the left hand and cognac with the right, as if the drinks were on the house. The day he flew out I remember going to the airport and making sure he had a couple of two-handed drinks before he got on the plane.
He was a delightful man and whenever we saw him after that he always ran over with a hug. In 1996 we played at The North Sea Festival and managed to get tickets to Chick Corea’s midnight Bud Powell Tribute concert, which had Joshua [Redman] playing in the front line with Wallace Roney. When we were leaving at 1.30am, it was in a crowd like the Royal Easter Show and suddenly Bernie and I heard our names being shouted out from quite distance away in the crowd. It was Dewey who finally fought his way through to give us a big hug and tell us a couple of gags.
Whenever another obstacle has come into the path of my career, I always quote the name of the album that Dewey did – The Struggle Continues!
Read a tribute to Dewey in The New York Times
And another in Jazz Police
Read this 2003 interview.
