Redman, Don(ald Matthew) 1900-64
US saxophonist, arranger and bandleader

Born to a musical family in Piedmont, West Virginia, he was able to play a wide range of wind instruments while still at school, and after studies at music schools, including Boston Conservatory, began to work professionally as a clarinettist, alto saxophonist and arranger. His first achievement was the creation in the mid-1920s of a distinctive style for the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. Redman's principles of swing-style orchestration, heard in recordings by McKinney's Cotton Pickers and Redman's own band from 1931 to 1940, influenced nearly every important jazz composer of the era and are still respected in big-band music.