Jazz quartet Redman, Mehldau, Blade and McBride play breathtakingly beautiful in Concertgebouw

No matter how stately and beautiful the Royal Concertgebouw is, and however deeply the legendary night concerts there are rooted in Dutch jazz history, the hall does not guarantee a great performance. It is simply difficult to get the amplification and acoustics just right. But after saxophonist Joshua Redman, pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade descended the stairs to record the first song mischief In fact, it was already clear that the sound was fine.

Blade played with the right damping, without the dreaded reverberation and the amplification of the other instruments was precisely adjusted. The concert of these four mastodons in contemporary jazz was named after MoodSwing, which the foursome released in 1994. Then the success for all four had yet to begin. Two follow-up albums were released in 2020 and recently, on which the quartet seemed to have grown in everything after years of playing together again.

Redman has started to solo more powerfully, on tenor and also on soprano, which he proved in Amsterdam on Tuesday. Disco Ears. Standing on one leg for a while to squeeze out the right note. Nice also how the rhythm section in Mehldaus Tired Honk the pace accelerated, so much so that Redman struggled to find a gap. And then those happy glances from McBride and Blade at each other when Mehldau once again stepped up a gear. In this way the four always enjoyed each other’s finds. And the public with them. A little gas back in Blades Your Part To Play, to then work towards a fiery climax. Breathtaking and of great beauty. All pieces were given more depth and color in this monumental performance in the Concertgebouw than on the already unmissable albums.