"Tribalism" is one of the most adventurous original compositions on Joshua Redman's 1993 self-titled debut album, a twenty-four-bar form in G-flat minor that draws on Afrocentric rhythmic and melodic ideas. Taken at a driving medium-up tempo, the piece features an insistent, hypnotic quality that sets it apart from the album's more conventional swing numbers. Redman delivers five choruses of tenor saxophone, an extended solo that builds from exploratory opening statements into passages of intense rhythmic and harmonic complexity. His playing here reveals the influence of his father Dewey Redman's free-leaning aesthetic alongside the more structured post-bop language that dominates the rest of the album. Kevin Hayes follows with four choruses of piano, his solo embracing the tune's modal character and percussive energy. The composition's title and musical character reflect the early 1990s jazz scene's engagement with African musical traditions and pan-African identity, themes that resonated throughout the work of Redman's contemporaries. The rhythm section locks into the tune's unusual phrase lengths with impressive precision, creating a foundation that is both grounded and propulsive. "Tribalism" demonstrates Redman's ambition as a composer, moving beyond the standard forms that many young players of his generation relied upon to create a distinctive and memorable piece of original music.
