Redd was born on September 20, 1928, in Los Angeles, California,[3] the daughter of New Orleans jazz drummer and Clef Club co-founder Alton Redd and Mattie Redd (née Thomas).[4] Her mother played saxophone, although not professionally, and her brother was a percussionist.[3] 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,[2][5] who convinced the 10-year-old Redd to switch from piano to saxophone.[3] During junior high school, Redd played alto saxophone in a band with Melba Liston and Dexter Gordon.[6]
Redd taught and lectured for many years from the 1970s onward upon returning to Los Angeles.[2][7] She served on the music advisory panel of the National Endowment for the Arts in the late 1970s.[10][11] In 1989, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Jazz Society.[12] In 2001, she received the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Award from the Kennedy Center.[13]
^ abcdPlacksin, Sally (1982). "Vi Redd". American Women in Jazz: 1900 to the Present (First ed.). New York: Wideview Books. pp. 259–260. ISBN9780872237605. OCLC8280710.
^Dahl, Linda (1984). Stormy Weather: The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazz Women (First ed.). New York: Pantheon Books. p. 250. ISBN9780039453558. OCLC10020976.
