The Jersey City Allstars Join The Reddish Fetish

Written By Mike Greenblatt
Reddish Fetish

South Florida clubs in the late ‘60s saw an explosive combo led by sax man Bill Reddish. The Reddish Fetish fused bebop, worldbeat, prog-rock and the avant-garde into a creative pastiche of unimaginable fusion. Oftentimes, they’d call up to the bandstand the legendary-but-tragic Weather Report/Joni Mitchell bassist Jaco to jam. Sadly, the band never recorded. But now, Bill’s son, drummer-producer-composer-arranger Jason T. Reddish, has revived The Reddish Fetish. With the help of The Jersey City Allstars, his Llegue (Spanish for Arrived) debut on F&F Records is alit with versions of compositions by Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane, Jerome Kern, Newark’s Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, Bobby Timmons, Freddie Hubbard and Charlie Parker. They even update “Greensleeves” from the year 1580, do it in 5/4 time, and call it “5 Sleeves.” Reddish studied at Rutgers, lives in Somerset County, and had a band in the 1990s called Scattered Few signed by Atlantic.

The Jersey Allstars are comprised of keyboardist Roy Suter, singer J Hacha De Zola, saxophonist-clarinetist Ben Golder-Novick, trumpeter Indofunk Satish, bassist Ian Kenselaar, violinist Sean David Cunningham, guitarist Jason Green and congas player Jose Yogui Rosario. Llegue was recorded at Cocoon Studios in Jersey City, from which we scored some rare rehearsal footage below.

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Mike Greenblatt

MIKE GREENBLATT has been writing for Goldmine magazine and New Jersey's Aquarian Weekly for more than 35 years. His writing subjects fill the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He's interviewed Joe Cocker, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Carlos Santana, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Johnny Cash, and members of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. He was 18 when he attended Woodstock in 1969.

In addition to writing about music, Greenblatt has worked on publicity campaigns for The Animals, Pat Benatar, Johnny Winter, Tommy James and Richard Branson, among others. He is currently the editor of The Jersey Sound.

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