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The track, ‘Groove X — By Any Means Necessary’ from the same album, was monumental — a dark, rumbling bassline (by at the time unknown bassist Christian McBride) echoing the hip hop sounds from the streets, and a magnetic, trance like saxophone from Redman. This was jazz with attitude, jazz as preached by the likes of Gilles Peterson (who was responsible for first playing the track).

Redman continued to trip the light fantastic with a succession of brilliant albums — Wish, Mood Swing, Spirit of the Moment and Timeless Tales cemented his reputation as one of jazz’s premier players. Live wise he was even better. Where musical brilliance was touched on record it was twisted with genius on the live stage.

Joshua Redman also introduced the world to many of today’s premier players. In addition to the aforementioned Christian McBride, pianist Brad Mehdlu and drummer Brian Blade (the best drummer in the world) all made their name playing with Redman. Of recent Redman has continued with an impressive body of work. Last year’s ‘Momentum’ and ‘SF Collective’ were both excellent but a niggling feeling began, on the live stage as well, that we had seen the best of Redman.

So onto ‘Back East’ and with the first few listens, disappointment. ‘Indian Song’ one of my favourite songs by one of my favourite artists Wayne Shorter is a crashing waste. The great saxophonist Joe Lovano guests, with the result being nothing more than a tired jazz workout. Parts of both ‘Back East’ and ‘GJ ’ are even worse, as my wife would say ‘screechy’ or free jazz to the rest of us. Free jazz is obviously an acquired taste but those who have followed Redman’s work will wonder what has happened.

But several listens later, the cream of this album rises to the top, the frantic noise are pushed to the side and more beautiful overtures come to the fore. I am happy to report overall this another very good album by Redman. Particularly memorable are ‘Mantra’ reflecting again the signature Redman ‘warm’ glow’. Here a pleasant air of melody lifts the listener with a gentle patter of percussion. ‘Indonesia’ resonates with joy and a pinch of Eastern spice, hand instruments wave in the distant and Joshua leads us on a merry dance reminscent of classic sixties British jazz. ‘India’ a duet with his late, great Dad Dewey Redman, also comes up trumps, reflecting sixties Blue Note jazz with a twist of the modern.

This is all twinned with a brilliant album opening. The first three tracks are particularly memorable, the twilight jazz of ‘The Surrey with the Fringe On Top’, the percussive ‘East of the Sun (And West of the Moon)’ and ‘Zarafah’ are like the Redman of old. The latter bridges the gap between Pharoah Sanders, Yusef Lateef, Alice Coltrane and modern club jazz. An anthem in the making.

So after my initial disappointment, and at least ten further plays in iTunes, here is another gem of an album from Redman. Not brilliant as some of his earlier work but still very, very good (especially with a bit of careful editing) and a contender for being one of the albums of the year.