Long live Joshua Redman

The SF JAZZ Collective plays Kansas City's Gem Theater on Sunday. It could be the concert of the year, although Roy Hargrove's show at the Folly back in January will be hard to top.

The Collective is, let's face it, a supergroup: Joshua Redman, Bobby Hutcherson and Renee Rosnes could all be called legends if they didn't in fact exist. The rest of the group is top notch.

Their first album focused on Ornette Coleman and was one of my favorites of 2005. That's an accomplishment because up until that time I didn't really care for Ornette Coleman. I'm still not slathering fan but thanks to the Collective, I get it (I think).

Another favorite album from Redman that same year was Momentum, which featured the shifting personnel that Redman and his collaborator Sam Yael call the Elastic Band.

The video above is a live performance of Jazz Crimes, which smokes. The excellent Brian Blade is on drums.