User ratings in Music are temporarily disabled. More info
- Summary: The latest album from the California-born jazz saxophonist.
- Record Label: Nonesuch
- Genre(s): Jazz
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
-
Positive: 6 out of 6
-
Mixed: 0 out of 6
-
Negative: 0 out of 6
-
There's no obvious precedent, and the session shows Redman at his best as he mixes funky riff-based bop themes with looser, free-form meditations, sometimes within the same tune.
-
His tone carries the weight and grandeur of fine marble, but sometimes the disc's lengthy array of tunescapes is a reminder that less is more.
-
MojoJosh's melodic intelligence and structural wit keeps things neat. [Apr 2009, p.110]
-
On Compass, Redman has finally learned the greatest trick from his mentor--to walk out on the wire with his horn more, trust the fluid abilities of his incredible rhythm section(s), and let his inner sense of song and freedom take precedence over his already well-established sense of discipline.
-
Redman and his partners seem to revel in spontaneous contemporary music-making rather than try to create a concept or a project, and they are some of the best-equipped players in jazz to do just that.
-
Fortunately, while the result of Redman’s “double-trio” experiment lands well short of revolutionary, the idea and intention go a long way to making the listener hear the rest of Compass more acutely, searching for any other creative tidbits of which we now know Redman is surely capable.