Freddie Redd

Hard bop pianist and composer Freddie Redd was born in Harlem, New York on May 29, 1928. He began playing piano at a young age and while a member of the military service in Korea in the mid-‘40s, he discovered Charlie Parker and set his sights on jazz music. After his discharge in the late 1940s, he played with a variety of artists include Johnny Mills, Oscar Pettiford, Tiny Grimes, Art Blakey, Cootie Williams, Ernestine Anderson, and others. He released a split album with Hampton Hawes – Piano: East/West (1955) – with one side devoted to Freddie Redd’s recordings. That same year, he released the album Introducing the Freddie Redd Trio. He also recorded sessions for albums by Gene Ammons, Joe Roland, Art Farmer and more. In 1959, he was commissioned to compose the music for the New York stage production – and movie – The Connection. In 1960, the Freddie Redd Quartet released The Music from the Connection on Blue Note Records. His quartet on the album included Jackie McLean on alto saxophone and the rhythm section of Larry Ritchie (drums) and Michael Mattos (bass). When his career stalled in the U.S. in the mid-1960s, he moved to Europe and didn’t return until 1974. Returning to the West Coast, Freddie Redd recorded a series of albums including Straight Ahead (1977), Extemporaneous (1978/released in 1990), Lonely City (1985/released in 1989), and Live at the Studio Grill (1988/released in 1990). Relocating to Baltimore, Maryland in 1990, he continued to release his own albums including With Due Respect (2016). In 2013, he recorded two albums – Reminiscing and Baltimore Jazz Loft (with Butch Warren – but they remained in the vaults until February 2021, when they were finally released. Freddie Redd died on March 17, 2021, just weeks after the release of those two archive albums.

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