Joshua Redman debuted in 1993 with Joshua Redman on Warner Bros., establishing himself as a tenor saxophonist to watch at the height of the so-called Young Lions era. His sophomore release, however, was on another level: Joined by Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins, Wish finds Redman not simply holding his own in the presence of three older jazz masters, but leading what sounds like his own band, with its own inflections and sense of swing. Interesting, expressive originals like “Soul Dance”, “The Deserving Many” and “Wish” help make the album an enduring touchstone. Metheny’s ballad “We Had a Sister” resurfaced a few years later on his Trio 99→00. Metheny, Haden, and Higgins had recorded Rejoicing for ECM in 1983 and staked a claim as one of the defining trios of the era. It speaks to Redman’s musical maturity that he could augment the Rejoicing trio and not just emerge unscathed, but in fact take charge and shape the conversation. (The final two tracks are from a live engagement at the Village Vanguard.) Not long before Rejoicing, Metheny recorded 80/81 with a line-up that included Haden as well as Redman’s father, Texas-born avant-garde tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman. The younger Redman is more inside-the-lines as a player and composer, but Metheny clicks with him just as powerfully. They lead off, as it happens, with the same Ornette Coleman tune, “Turnaround”, that Metheny tackled on 80/81—anyone wanting to trace the evolution of Metheny’s guitar sound and technique from the early ’80s to the mid-’90s would do well to start with “Turnaround” in these starkly different versions. There are also two acoustic guitar numbers, Stevie Wonder’s “Make Sure You’re Sure” (from Jungle Fever) and Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven”; a trio rendering of Charlie Parker’s “Moose the Mooche” (sans guitar); and a solid, old-school minor blues by Metheny, unrecorded anywhere else, called “Whittlin’”.