Guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, who plays in an ‘all star’ line-up with tenorist Joshua Redman, pianist Brad Mehldau, drummer Ali Jackson and bassist Larry Grenadier, was handpicked from Berklee School of Music by vibist Gary Burton. Subsequently he toured with renowned jazz musicians like Joe Lovano, Paul Motian and Joe Henderson. Although Rosenwinkel’s talent ripened in a more or less straight-ahead milieu, he has always thought about possibilities to develop jazz in a progressive way. He’s one of those musicians who is capable of welding tradition and renewal together in a seamless way. Joshua Redman, one of the stars around Rosenwinkel, hesitated for a long time whether he would become a doctor or a lawyer. Happily enough he then, in 1991, won the Thelonious Monk Competition, secured a record deal with one of the majors and was portrayed on the cover of various magazines. Suddenly the decision to become a musician wasn’t hard anymore. Brad Mehldau, too, did once decide to become a pianist. He’s a versatile musician who sprouted from a fusion of the piano schools of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, but along the way has developed a clear, personal, musical identity. Larry Grenadier is the regular bassist of Mehldau and he is a man that is absolutely essential in this all star band. Grenadier has the capability to feel, almost in a telepathic way, what other musicians want him to play. In this band he joins up with drummer Ali Jackson, a man from a family of jazz musicians who played in the streets with his father when he was seven just to get some experience. He graduated at the Cass Technical Highschool, an institute that yielded alumni like Donald Byrd and Geri Allen.
