Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Donald Matthew Redman was born into a musical family on July 29, 1900 in Piedmont, West Virginia. He started playing the trumpet at age 3, joined his first band at 6 and by twelve was proficient on all wind instruments ranging from trumpet to oboe and piano. After studying at Storer’s College in Harper’s Ferry and at the Boston Conservatory, he joined Billy Page’s Broadway Syncopaters in New York.
1922 saw Don joining Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra, mostly playing clarinet and saxophones. He soon began writing the bulk of the orchestra’s arrangements, contributing much to formulate the sound that was to become big band swing. The chief trademark of Redman’s arrangements was that he harmonized melody lines and pseudo-solos within separate sections; for example, clarinet, sax, or brass trios. He played these sections off each other, having one section punctuate the figures of another, or moving the melody around different orchestral sections and soloists. His use of this technique was sophisticated, highly innovative, and formed the basis of much big band jazz writing in the following decades.
By 1927 he joined McKinney’s Cotton Pickers in Detroit as their musical director and leader but by 1931 Redman formed his own band and took up residency at Connie’s Inn in Manhattan. Redman’s band recorded for Brunswick Records, provided music for the Betty Boop series, employed singer Harland Lattimore, known as “The Colored Bing Crosby” and wrote arrangements for musicians and bandleaders like Paul Whiteman, Isham Jones and Bing Crosby. By 1940 Redman had disbanded his orchestra, began freelancing writing arrangements that became hits for Jimmy Dorsey, Count Basie and Harry James. In 1949 he appeared on CBS’s Uptown Jubilee and in the Fifties became musical director for Pearl Bailey.
Don Redman died in New York City at age 64 on November 30, 1964. His family legacy left us two more generations of jazz musicians, as he was the uncle of saxophonist Dewey Redman, and thus great-uncle of saxophonist Joshua Redman and trumpeter Carlos Redman.