Reviews of A Hundred Jumping Devils

Rob excels at writing these dreamy songs that seem to float on the air with the sax, French horn, violin and guitar playing haunting lines together.
—Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery News (October 20, 2006)

Creating a unique blend of vivid timbres and rich instrumental textures, Gift Horse explores a wealth of harmonic colors. Reddy is an impressive and open-minded tunesmith, whether penning punchy samba riffs (“Ó-Brasil”) or winding melodies filled with rich harmonies and subtle counterpoint (“Abraham”). A lush and evocative record, A Hundred Jumping Devils stands tall in Reddy's discography.
—Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com (October 22, 2006)

The Reddy disc is easily on my short list for 2006. A very refreshing release. It always seemed to me that one of the hardest things to accomplish is the marriage of melody, dissonance/freedom, and in the pocket groove...perhaps the secret to the glorious musics of the Art Ensemble, Ornette, and Threadgill. I have heard lots of cds in recent years that come close (lots of groove and dissonance but no melody, or melody and no groove etc...) but too few records that hit the 'sweet spot'; A Hundred Jumping Devils does.
—Matthew Lavoie, Voice of America (November 2, 2006)

His new CD, which is called A Hundred Jumping Devils, is striking for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's the unusual sound pallette he draws on with French horn, violin and congas all in the mix, and secondly it's his approach to composition, taking in inspiration from a variety of disparate sources: hymns, processionals and sambas amongst them...a quite unusual mix of instruments, influences and sounds.
—Jez Nelson, BBC Radio 3's Jazz on 3 (November 3, 2006)

Reddy has turned in yet another irresistible record with A Hundred Jumping Devils.
—Jerry D'Souza, AllAboutJazz.com (November 18, 2006)

With Gift Horse, Reddy has found a band that is truly in common step. This is an ensemble of partners, interlocking parts, and there is scarcely a moment of bombast, no braying egoism. It says a lot that Reddy, a robust, powerful saxophonist, never dominates the proceedings...when any one voice calls, everyone responds.
—Leone Evangelista, AllAboutJazz.com (November 25, 2006)

A Hundred Jumping Devils is full of great writing, and seems to gel in a way a lot of recordings don't.
—David Beckett, WWPV-FM (December 1, 2006)

Publisher’s Pick
—Michael Ricci, AllAboutJazz.com (December 4, 2006)

Top 10 for 2006 List
—Maurice Hogue, CKUW-FM (December 13, 2006)

Publisher’s Top Picks for 2006 List
—Michael Ricci, AllAboutJazz.com (January 1, 2007)

Best of 2006 List
—Paul Olson, AllAboutJazz.com (January 1, 2007)

****...Reddy invente une musique lyrique et voyageuse, mélodique et sophistiqueé, trés mobile dans ses humers et ses couleurs mais d'une rigueur et d'une cohérence formelles de tous instants. Un musicien à suivre de trés près.
—Stéphane Ollivier, Jazzman (January 2007)

Reddy’s soprano sax playing is nasal, almost shawm-like, and when he joins in with violinist Charles Burnham and French horn player Mark Taylor the results are rich and plangent, swelling into hurdy-gurdy drone or conjuring up echoes of mournful/joyous African or Cuban song. But this rather cool and melancholy beauty is only one element here: there’s also the gracefully bubbling grooves laid down by bassist Dom Richards and percussionist Mino Cinelu (Reddy’s use of [quieter] percussion rather than the conventional drumkit is a smart move that totally upends the usual jazz-ensemble dynamics), and the cat’s-paw guitar of Brandon Ross...excellent stuff...
—Nate Dorward, Paris Transatlantic (January 2007)

Rob Reddy’s Gift Horse sextet sounds like no other ensemble. Employing French horn and violin alongside Reddy’s saxophones, with Mino Cinelu providing rich percussion sans drum kit, the group creates a forward thinking, yet rustic sound that is of everyplace and no place.
—Forrest Dylan Bryant, JazzTimes (February 2007)

...this one inaugurates a new home label, and if the quality of music and packaging is kept up, he has a winner on his hands. Truth is, after a couple of decades out on the scene and after a significant break in his own recording history, Reddy sounds, and dares to sound, like no one but himself.
—Brian Morton, Jazz Review (February/March 2007)

...Reddy has assembled a fine cast of players, each with an uncommon ability to evoke a broad range of images as they interpret these beautifully complex compositions. These performances invoke vivid images due to each player’s exquisite touch and by the merging of instrumental timbres not often blended. The beautifully round sound of Mark Taylor’s French horn combined with Charles Burnham’s sonorous violin and Reddy’s soprano or alto, dovetailed with either or both, create voicings that are powerfully elegant. A very strong conceptual work...
—Elliott Simon, All About Jazz-New York (March 2007)

Released last year, “A Hundred Jumping Devils” projects a number of the qualities that distinguish Mr. Reddy’s best music: stealthy propulsion, sturdy lyricism and a sound that reconciles classical harmony with folk rusticity. Mr. Reddy, who mainly plays soprano and alto, never seems to run out of new ways to bundle the timbres in his arsenal, which include Charlie Burnham’s violin, Brandon Ross’s guitar and Mark Taylor’s French horn.
—Nate Chinen, The New York Times (March 9, 2007)

...[Mark] Taylor’s burnished, glowing quality, even during the darting free section of “Mark of Sincerity,” contrasts with Reddy’s assertive, commanding presence, as the strings and percussion complete the musical spectrum. Once again, Rob Reddy has recorded another noteworthy addition to his discography as he continues to explore new themes, new textures and new rhythms...
—Bill Donaldson, Cadence (April 2007)

Reddy, who came up through Ronald Shannon Jackson’s later Decoding Societies, is an engaging player of the high saxophones, but he’s even more interesting as a conceptualist. This CD is beautiful evidence that [he] is staying several steps ahead of his devils.
—John Chacona, Coda (September/October 2007)