Joshua Redman is the son of legendary tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman and a Russian dancer and was born February 1, 1969 in Berkeley, California (USA). But he didn't start to release records until 1992 when he signed with Warner Bros and released his debut Joshua Redman in 1993.
I only discovered Joshua with the release of Timeless Tales (for Changing Times) in 1998 and really liked his saxophone playing since then.
With Elastic he releases his 9th album and this time he teams up again with Sam Yahel (organ, keys, piano) and Brian Blade (drums) after they also recorded yaya³.
In my opinion Elastic is Joshua's best album so far.
Sometimes saxophone playing can become a little enervating with too much improvisation (like some Courtney Pine songs) or on the contrary it can sound more like muzak or smooth jazz (like Kim Waters or Kirk Whalum sometimes do). But Joshua and his co-musicians really bridge the gap with Elastic (maybe thus the title) and create a fine album you can listen to over and over again and where you are not glad that it's finally finished :-)
The overall feeling on Elastic is more midtempo and relaxed with Still Pushin' That Rock being the only song raising the tempo and featuring a some nice keyboard solos.
Really can't pick up a favourite song here since there's no dull song on offer and I think Elastic works best as a whole.
My instrumental jazz album of the year (ok, I haven't purchased any other instrumental jazz album this year but then Elastic is really good).