SFJAZZ presents the Joshua Redman Group featuring Gabrielle Cavassa
Robert M. Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
7:30 PM, Thursday, March 13, 2025

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[7:32 PM] {lights down; band out without introduction}

1. [7:32 PM] Chicago Blues (Count Basie‚ James Rushing; Sufjan Stevens)
2. [7:42 PM] Streets of Philadelphia (Bruce Springsteen)
3. [7:49 PM] Hotel California (Don Felder‚ Don Henley‚ & Glenn Frey)
   [8:02 PM] {JR banter & band introduction}
4. [8:09 PM] By the Time I Get to Phoenix (Jimmy Webb)
5. [8:16 PM] My Heart in San Francisco (Holiday) (George C. Cory & Douglass Cross; Thelonious Monk)
6. [8:23 PM] Rhode Island Is Famous for You (Howard Dietz & Arthur Schwartz)
   [8:33 PM] {JR back announcement and Warsaw story}
7. [8:37 PM] Could It Be Magic (Barry Manilow & Adrienne Anderson; Frédéric Chopin)
   [8:48 PM] {JR introduces the band again}
   [8:49 PM] {bow and all off}
   
   Encore
   [8:50 PM] {everybody back out}
8. [8:51 PM] Baltimore (Randy Newman; Gabriel Kahane)
   [9:00 PM] {final applause}
   [9:01 PM] {show ends}

• Gabrielle Cavassa: vox;
• Paul Cornish: piano;
• Nazir Ebo: drums;
• Philip Norris: contrabass;
• Joshua Redman: tenor saxophone.

After listening to his 2023 album, Where Are We, I had been looking forward to hearing a live rendition of the latest iteration of Joshua Redman's musical journey, and tonight's concert was a welcome reward for my patience! I really liked that many of the album tunes were mash-ups, and tonight we go four of those: * Chicago Blues, tagging the Count Basie/Jimmy Rushing blues classic Goin to Chicago with a bit of Sufjan Stevens' Chicago; * My Heart in San Francisco (Holiday), which interpolated a few interludes of Thelonious Monk's San Francisco Holiday into the evergreen classic I Left My Heart in San Francisco; * Could It Be Magic, with an homage to Frédéric Chopin's Prelude in C minor, Opus 28, Number 20; * and Baltimore, which blended the 1977 Randy Newman tune with Gabriel Kahane's 2018 song of the same name.

The other half of tonight's tunes were all covers: two from the album (Streets of Philadelphia and By the Time I Get to Phoenix), and two more with strong place-association, the Eagles' Hotel California and a snappy Broadway show tune from 1948, Rhode Island Is Famous for You, originally co-performed by Jack Haley, the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. That last one was my favorite of the night: it had the allure of being new to me while being propelled by witty lyrics and a spritely melody.

As is often the case, everyone in the band has chops a-plenty, and while I didn't receive all of their solos enthusiastically, they were mostly darn interesting. Extra props to Paul Cornish: he'll be teaching at the Stanford Jazz Workshop this summer – hopefully that means a few more chances to hear him play in the near future!

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2025 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2025 event list! ☸ On to the next event!