Ron's Jazz World: Vi Redd

Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Vi Redd

Elvira Louise Redd, September 20, 1928 – February 6 2022, was an American jazz alto saxophone player, vocalist, and educator. She was active from the early 1950s and was known primarily for playing in the blues style. She was highly regarded as an accomplished veteran and performed with Count Basie, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Linda Hopkins, Marian McPartland, and Dizzy Gillespie.

Vi Redd was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of New Orleans jazz drummer and Clef Club co-founder Alton Redd and Mattie Redd. Her mother played saxophone, although not professionally, and her brother was a percussionist. She was deeply influenced during her formative years by her father, who was one of the leading figures on the Central Avenue jazz scene. Another important musical mentor was her paternal great aunt Alma Hightower, who convinced the 10-year-old Redd to switch from piano to saxophone. During junior high school, Redd played alto saxophone in a band with Melba Liston and Dexter Gordon.

Vi Redd Jazz Playlist

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Vi began singing in church when she was five years old, after studying piano for a while, and when she was in high school, she went on to blow a C Melody saxophone that her great-aunt Alma Hightower had given when she was 10.

Vi Redd had much in common with trombonist Melba Liston. Both played a horn, in Vi’s case, alto saxophone and occasionally soprano saxophone; both were Los Angeles girls, and both studied with Mrs. Hightower. Under her tutelage, Vi cut her musical teeth...

When one does research on the career of Vi Redd, the term that recurs more than any other is “under-recorded”. How true that is. Though Ms. Redd has played and toured with artists such as Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Sarah Vaughan, and Max Roach, she has only two albums to her name and a scant four more with other artists. Notable among these is Now’s The Time, an all-female session led by Marian McPartland in 1977. Throughout the years, she gigged around the Los Angeles area and supported herself as a schoolteacher between engagements. She finally received a bit of long-overdue recognition in 2000, when she was honored at “Instrumental Women: Celebrating Women-N-Jazz“, a concert at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

In a society where women were expected to be discreet and submissive, perhaps it was the sheer volume or the brazen nature of an instrument such as the saxophone that led people to consider it ‘unfeminine’ and dismiss female players. Nevertheless, one saxophonist whose style and ability could not be ignored helped turn the tide on sex discrimination in jazz. In these years, she cultivated a sax style reminiscent of Charlie ‘The Bird’ Parker’s, and sang powerful bluesy melodies alongside her playing. Her bebop influence and reverence for Parker is alluded to in tracks such as ‘I Remember Bird’.