Steve Reid
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Steve Reid (January 29, 1944) is an American jazz drummer who has played with a wide range of notable artists including Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, James Brown, Fela Kuti and Sun Ra, and as a session drummer for Motown. He was named Jazziz’s "Percussionist of the Year" in 1993 and 1995.
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[edit] Biographical
He picked up drumming at age 16 and in the same period his family moved to Queens, NYC, three blocks away from John Coltrane. This was the early sixties which was a peak for Coltrane but also for the jazz scene in NYC. Before going to college, he worked at the Apollo Theatre, as a musician obviously, under the direction of Quincy Jones. He then graduated at Adelphi University in Garden City, NY, and the made a three year trip to Africa, opening up his influences even more. He affirms Africa is the heart of drumming.
After this trip Reid started playing with some of the big names of Jazz and black music, including James Brown, Sun Ra, Ornette, Miles (on the album Tutu). In 1969 Reid was arrested as conscientious objector. In an interview he affirms he didn't want to have anything to do with the war in Vietnam.
Nessa, Tribe, ESP, Strata-East were some indie labels that shared the same radicalism as Reid, regarding matters such as the importance of pure music, the affirmation of black society, etc. At the same time new kinds of music groups, who worked out more as communes, were starting to form, such as Sun Ra's Arkestra, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Black Artist's Group, Tribe. In the early seventies Reid started his own label, Mustevic Sound Inc., obviously self-produced and distributed.
[edit] Music
[edit] Recordings:
His ensemble's latest album Spirit Walk (Soul Jazz, 2005) features electronic musician Kieran Hebden, who also records solo as Four Tet, on improvised electronics. Reid and Hebden have also collaborated on a series of releases called the "Exchange Sessions" (after the studio in London in which they were recorded), which will be released on Domino Records in 2006.
Reid has now been living in Europe for several years (Lugano, Switzerland) and has released several recordings for labels such as Soul Jazz records in London, UK, and German jazz label CPR. For the past few releases, his ensemble has been based around Reid himself, Chuck Henderson (soprano saxophone; previous saxophonist Lena Bloch, tenor sax, left for the University of Massachusetts Amherst to play with the UMass Amherst jazz ensemble), Boris Netsvetaev (piano; living in Hamburg, Germany) and Chris Lachotta (double-bass; living in Munich, Germany).
Steve Reid's recordings include "Wave", "Invitation" and "Spirits Walk" (2005); "Live In Europe" (2002, with Lena Bloch) and "A Drum Story" (2003).
[edit] External links
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