Harbour Resort.

I have seen your Kenny G, I see your Wynton Marsalis and I raise you with Joshua Redman! Yes, the stakes have been raised by the Bermuda Festival in our appreciation of jazz music with last week's performances of the Joshua Redman Quintet.

As taut as a high-wire, the band charmed Thrsday night's audience at the Marriott, and with a competence well beyond their years. The son of the avant garde saxophonist Dewey Redman, there is nothing Joshua has not heard and not absorbed into his music.

Where the beauty of classical music is in thorough composition and faithful execution, most jazz is improvised; while there is a basic structure (the head arrangement), the composing should take place on the bandstand! This quintet roared onto the stage with the Redman original "Blues on Sunday'', a warm-up that certainly relaxed the audience after a hard day's work. Quickly followed by "Pantomime'' from his current disc, "Freedom in the Groove'', Redman pulled a round tone from his soprano sax and shared solos with guitarist Peter Bernstein. It is a swinging tune that allowed for an exploration of the extremes of the soprano's range, a notoriously difficult thing to do.

The Rogers and Hart standard "My Foolish Heart'' followed. Some insist that the only real jazz is the canon of `standards', the Redman way included innovations culled from the vocabulary of his father's contemporaries like free tempo stop time choruses, or squeals and honks from a '50s' R&B rave-up.

Pianist Peter Martin was an effective soloist using counterpoint and a deft left hand to anchor the band.

"Jive Coffee'' is Bernstein's showcase, the song itself is a sly play on the Japanese curiosity with things Western, including African Americans. The guitarist even added a little tasteful rock twist by playing through a foot pedal that made the instrument sound as if it was crying, something not seen in this music since the '70s.

Mention must be made of the bassist Christopher Thomas. Carrying the melody while the band raged around him, at one point during Charlie Parker's "Moose the Mooche'' (now a standard and devoid of its heroin references) as drummer Brian Blade slapped every imaginable part of his simple kit every which way but loose, and Redman soared, he unobtrusively handled the job of keeping us sane.

This generation X band understands the value of subtlety and history but, like a police wedge entering a riot scene, can plough in cracking skulls and still heal the wounded.

The closing song of the two-hour set was another original, "Can't Dance''. A funky romp that would be at home in the James Brown band, it was also an obvious nod to the iconoclastic Sonny Rollins, on whose work and format the Redman Quintet certainly patterns itself.

Competent musicians can `turn the rhythm around' -- seemingly alter the tempo while keeping the basic pulse. This happened often during "Can't Dance'', ironically making it highly danceable.

The Joshua Redman Quintet was an excellent choice for the annual highlight of the music calendar.

DESING BURGESS JOSHUA REDMAN -- A big hit with Bermuda's jazz fans.

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