Saxophonist Joshua Redman’s third Blue Note album, If Ever You Would Leave Us (we play for Rollins), is due out on November 20, 2026. It features 11 Sonny Rollins compositions performed by musicians in a range of lineups. A Blue Note Records press release describes the album as a tribute to the “Colossus of the Saxophone.”
An Album Set in Motion by a Series of Calls
The press release recounts how the album began: on the morning after Rollins died, Redman felt he had to do something for Sonny but did not know where to begin, so he started calling friends and colleagues. A group of musicians quickly agreed to take part, and they recorded the album in New York within a few weeks. Participants include drummer Marcus Gilmore; bassists Christian McBride and Larry Grenadier; pianist Kevin Hays; guitarist Peter Bernstein; tenor saxophonist Chris Potter; and singers Cécile McLorin Salvant and Gabrielle Cavassa. Hays and Bernstein had both previously played in Rollins’s band.
Three Early Singles
- 《Grand Street》: The album’s first single, originally recorded on Rollins’s Sonny Rollins And The Big Brass. This version features Redman, Bernstein, McBride and Gilmore; Gilmore’s grandfather, drummer Roy Haynes, played on the original recording.
- 《God Bless the Child》: Sung by Gabrielle Cavassa, with Bernstein, McBride and Gilmore. This version follows the arrangement and harmonic structure of Rollins’s 1962 album The Bridge, with Cavassa on the melody and Redman accompanying her. The song is a signature Billie Holiday standard, and the press release describes this performance as “a tribute to a tribute.”
- 《If Ever I Would Leave You》: Released on October 30 and echoing the album title. Rollins recorded this standard on his 1962 album What’s New? Redman performs it here in a bright, swinging quartet with Hays, Grenadier and Gilmore.
“Like Losing a Parent”
Redman said in the press release: “Sonny’s passing really hit me hard. It was like losing a parent. To me—and I think to all of us—he was a musical father, grandfather and godfather.” The release also notes that Redman discovered Rollins’s music in the record stacks at the Berkeley Public Library when he was ten or eleven and first learning saxophone. His own development has remained intertwined with Rollins’s work ever since.
If Ever You Would Leave Us (we play for Rollins) is Redman’s third album for Blue Note and will be released on November 20, 2026.
Sources:Blue Note Records: “Joshua Redman Shares ‘If Ever I Would Leave You’ From Sonny Rollins Tribute Album” (October 30, 2026)；“God Bless the Child” single announcement (October 9)；Album announcement (September 15)