The context of Wish is essential to understanding its weight. Following his self-titled debut, Redman faced the pressure of the "sophomore slump." Instead of retreating into a safe, formulaic hard bop corner, he assembled a quartet of formidable weight: pianist Pat Metheny (in a rare sideman role), bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Billy Higgins. In Lossless fidelity, the distinct sonic footprint of this rhythm section becomes immediately apparent. The FLAC encoding preserves the air in the room and the decay of Haden’s bass strings, allowing the listener to hear not just the notes, but the history behind them. Haden and Higgins, both veterans of Ornette Coleman’s bands, brought a liberated, melodic approach to rhythm that grounded Redman’s modern sensibilities in the avant-garde’s roots.
★★★★★ (Essential) Genre: Post-bop / Mainstream Jazz For fans of: Branford Marsalis, Chris Potter, Kurt Rosenwinkel Joshua Redman - Wish -1993- -Lossless FLAC-
Thirty years on, Wish remains a touchstone — a young band’s masterpiece, a perfect autumn night record, and a testament to the enduring power of four empathetic improvisers in a room. The context of Wish is essential to understanding its weight
Critically, Wish stands the test of time because it refuses to be pigeonholed. It is an intellectual album—Redman’s solos are mathematically precise and thematically developed—but it wears its intellect lightly. It is also a groove album, buoyed by Higgins and Haden, but it avoids the vapid smooth jazz pitfalls of the era. Listening to the 1993 recording in FLAC is akin to viewing a restored film print; the grain is still there, the artifact of the era remains, but the colors are truer, and the edges are sharper. The digital artifacting that sometimes plagues early digital recordings is mitigated by the transparency of the lossless codec, allowing the warmth of the analog instruments to shine through. The FLAC encoding preserves the air in the
This lineup is astonishing. Metheny, the boundary-pushing guitarist, brings his signature shimmering harmonies; Haden, the former Ornette Coleman bassist, provides unshakable, lyrical grounding; and Higgins, the hard-bop heartbeat (who played on Kind of Blue’s "Freddie Freeloader"), infuses every track with joyous, lived-in swing.