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Mike Reed

Mike Reed (b. Bielefeld, Germany May 26, 1974) is a musician, composer, bandleader and arts presenter based in Chicago. Over the last two decades he has emerged as a dominant force within Chicago’s diverse artistic community, both through the music he makes and the live events he produces. In addition to leading or co-leading several working bands, all rooted deeply in jazz and improvised music, he’s founding director of the Pitchfork Music Festival, the current programming chair of the Chicago Jazz Festival, and the owner and director of the acclaimed performing arts venue Constellation. He is a devoted cultural advocate committed to providing platforms for artistic expression unhindered by commercial pressures. In 2016 he also became the owner of the Hungry Brain, a cozy neighborhood tavern that’s been a fulcrum for live creative music and socially-driven public programs.

His long-running post-bop quartet People, Places & Things has collaborated with guest musicians like Ira Sullivan, Julian Priester, Art Hoyle, Craig Taborn, and Matthew Shipp over the years. An expanded iteration of that project called Flesh & Bone, augmented by additional horn players and vocalist/poet Marvin Tate Reed, has pushed the project in new directions. The endeavor was initiated by the leader’s deeply personal reaction to a race riot he found himself in the midst of in the town of Prerov in the Czech Republic during a 2009 tour. Reed also leads an improvisation-heavy quintet called Loose Assembly as well as the expansive octet Living by Lanterns (with includes guitarist Mary Halvorson, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, drummer Tomas Fujiwara, and saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock). Over the last couple of years he’s played in Artifacts, a collective trio with flutist Nicole Mitchell and cellist Tomeka Reid, devoted to interpreting music by members of the AACM—a body of work rarely interpreted by musicians other than the composers.

In addition to forging ongoing collaborative relationships with first-wave AACM figures like the legendary reedist Roscoe Mitchell and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, Reed remains a lynchpin in his native city, working as a key member of vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz’s trio Sun Rooms as well as the octet led by bassist Jason Roebke. Over the years he was worked with Chicago musicians like guitarist Jeff Parker, flutist Nicole Mitchell, saxophonists Fred Anderson, and cornetist Rob Mazurek. He’s a member of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), where he served as vice-chairperson between 2009-2011. Downbeat Magazine has regularly recognized Reed as Jazz Artist, Rising Star in in its annual Critics Poll since 2009, and one of the 80 Best Things About Jazz in its 80th Anniversary issue. In 2010 The Chicago Tribune named Reed as one of its Chicagoans of the year and in 2014 Chicago Magazine cited him as the 94th most powerful and influential person in the city. In 2016 Reed was awarded a prestigious United States Artists fellowship from the Doris Duke Foundation, recognized for his “unique artistic voice that expands the creative environment of the United States.”

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Mike Reed / The Separatist Party: A Low Frequency Nightmare

Read "Mike Reed / The Separatist Party: A Low Frequency Nightmare" reviewed by John Chacona


In 2021, the jny: Chicago instrumental drone trio Bitchin Bajas dropped Switched on Ra (Drag City), a collection of Sun Ra covers for synthesizers. Drummer, bandleader and scenemaker Mike Reed probably heard the cassette-only release and he almost certainly heard the band's October 2021 performance of that material at his Hungry Brain venue. They must have made an impression on Reed who brought the Bajas into the studio three months later to record The Separatist Party (Astral Spirits/We Jazz, 2023). ...

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Album Review

Artifacts: Tomeka Reid, Nicole Mitchell, Mike Reed: …and then there’s this

Read "…and then there’s this" reviewed by John Sharpe


For the follow up to the excellent debut Artifacts (482 Music, 2015), the stellar threesome of cellist Tomeka Reid, flautist Nicole Mitchell, and drummer Mike Reed waxes another outstanding album, but one which differs in two respects. Firstly this time out the emphasis is on the compositional smarts of the crew rather than a celebration of their forebears in Chicago's esteemed AACM. Secondly, as Mitchell elucidates, this collection is also more focused on the groove. But neither is a dramatic ...

6
Album Review

Artifacts: Tomeka Reid, Nicole Mitchell, Mike Reed: …and then there’s this

Read "…and then there’s this" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians or AACM, formed in 1965, adopted the maxim “ancient to the future." The future of which they spoke, in the hands of the next generation heard here, is indeed secure. The trio Artifacts comprises the gifted successors to the AACM, cellist Tomeka Reid, flutist Nicole Mitchell, and drummer Mike Reed. ...and then there's this is the trio's second release and it follows the self-titled debut from 482 Music in 2015. Where that ...

5
Album Review

Roscoe Mitchell & Mike Reed: The Ritual and the Dance

Read "The Ritual and the Dance" reviewed by John Sharpe


Though reedman Roscoe Mitchell has appeared as a guest with drummer Mike Reed's Loose Assembly outfit, captured on Empathetic Parts (482 Music, 2010), this compelling set unfurls firmly on Mitchell's improvisatory turf. On The Ritual And The Dance the representatives of two generations of Chicago's AACM combine in a single 36-minute outpouring recorded in Antwerp in 2015, likely during dates to promote an earlier duet In Pursuit Of Magic (482 Music, 2014). It begins with Mitchell's coiled squeaks, ...

6
Album Review

Wadada Leo Smith / Douglas Ewart / Mike Reed: Sun Beans Of Shimmering Light

Read "Sun Beans Of Shimmering Light" reviewed by John Sharpe


Three significant forces spanning two generations of the forward-thinking Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians meet in a poised recital on Sun Beans Of Shimmering Light. Although recorded in 2015 at drummer Mike Reed's Constellation arts space in Chicago, the concert's genesis lies some five years earlier and 700 miles to the east. When Reed's band People, Places & Things played the 2010 Vision Festival in NYC on the same evening as Wadada Leo Smith, the ...

4
Album Review

Roscoe Mitchell & Mike Reed: The Ritual and the Dance

Read "The Ritual and the Dance" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Seventeen minutes into this thirty-seven minute performance from Roscoe Mitchell and Mike Reed, the saxophonist pauses, removing the soprano from his lips. At that moment, it is clear what an enormous effort the septuagenarian was making. His breath control and lung volume might be matched only by two of his contemporaries, Evan Parker and Peter Brötzmann. But then, you might not be surprised by the saxophonist's attack as he has been at this for half a century. This ...

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Album Review

Jeremy Cunningham: The Weather Up There

Read "The Weather Up There" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard


The complex landscape of human emotions is still vastly uncharted, but every true work of art adds a little piece to the puzzle. This can be done in many ways, but it is rare that an album connects emotion with complex layers of memory, interpersonal relations, politics and societal structures. Nevertheless, this is what drummer and composer Jeremy Cunningham's album does. In a statement, Cunningham explains the background: “I wrote The Weather Up There to confront the ...

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Recording

Chicago Drummer/Composer/Impresario Mike Reed Releases "A New Kind Of Dance" (482 Music) – The 6th Album By His Acclaimed Quartet People, Places, And Things - Out Sept 25th

Chicago Drummer/Composer/Impresario Mike Reed Releases "A New Kind Of Dance" (482 Music) – The 6th Album By His Acclaimed Quartet People, Places, And Things - Out Sept 25th

Source: Fully Altered Media

A New Kind of Dance Features Reed's Original Compositons, Alongside Covers of Ellington/Strayhorn, Mos Def & A Traditional Bulgarian Folk Dance Also Features Luminary Matthew Shipp & Thelonious Monk Competition Winner Marquis Hill When drummer, composer and bandleader Mike Reed isn’t playing music he spends much of his time watching others making it. But he also observes audiences. As a concert and festival organizer he’s informally noted the interaction between performer and audience for years, and while his rapidly expanding ...

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Music Industry

Mike Reed: Great expectations for Constellation

Mike Reed: Great expectations for Constellation

Source: Michael Ricci

For anyone who values innovation in music, the next few days could mark the beginning of a significant era in Chicago. On Monday, Chicago jazz drummer and music producer Mike Reed will launch Constellation, a performing arts center that will feature an array of music—from experimental jazz to classical avant-garde — plus dance, film and other eclectic work. Equally important, these genres often will intermingle at Constellation, as in the “Collision Theory" series produced by the Links Hall organization, which ...

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Recording

Mike Reed's Loose Assembly - Empathetic Parts (482 Music, 2010)

Mike Reed's Loose Assembly - Empathetic Parts (482 Music, 2010)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Drummer and composer Mike Reed has been quietly carving a very distinctive niche for himself in the creative and competitive Chicago jazz scene. On this album he was trying to find an ensemble that could perform what he calls “collective arranging" where the whole group would be responsible for the development of the music. Bringing in his Loose Assembly group with Josh Abrams on bass, Jason Adasiewicz on vibraphone, Tomeka Reid on cello and Greg Ward on alto saxophone, he ...

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Interview

Drummer Mike Reed Interviewed at AAJ

Drummer Mike Reed Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

There is not a name yet for what Mike Reed does on drums. Elvin Jones created polyrhythmics; Rashied Ali, multi-directionalism. Reed is delivering something related but distinct. It has as much to do with tonal complexity as with keeping the beat, but the complexity goes beyond that, into a recombination of the many drumming styles of jazz history. “Pan-tonalism" might characterize it, but it doesn't roll off the tongue the way his sticks roll off his heads.

AAJ Contributor Gordon ...

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Recording

Drummer Mike Reed Completes People, Places and Things Trilogy with "Stories and Negotiations" (482 Music) Feat. Jeb Bishop, Art Hoyle, Julian Priester, Ira Sullivan

Drummer Mike Reed Completes People, Places and Things Trilogy with "Stories and Negotiations" (482 Music) Feat. Jeb Bishop, Art Hoyle, Julian Priester, Ira Sullivan

Source: Fully Altered Media

Mike Reed's People, Places & Things Latest Recording, Stories and Negotiations featuring Art Hoyle, Julian Priester & Ira Sullivan

Stories & Negotiations is Third Installment In A Trilogy of Recordings Devoted to the Remarkable Period of 1954-1960 Chicago Jazz, And Its Relation to Chicago Jazz Today

Release Date: April 20, 2010 Catalog #482-107 Recorded live in Chicago's Millennium Park in Summer 2008, Stories and Negotiations is the latest vibrant installment in drummer/composer Mike Reed's ...

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Recording

Mike Reed's People, Places and Things - Stories and Negotiations (482 Music)

Mike Reed's People, Places and Things - Stories and Negotiations (482 Music)

Source: Master of a Small House

The last tine in drummer Mike Reed's three-pronged exploration of Chicago jazz history, this disc is appropriately climactic in its inspired variation on the project's guiding theme. Reed conscripted three living legends with deep ties to the Windy City scene - trumpeter Art Hoyle, trombonist Julian Priester and multi-instrumentalist Ira Sullivan, heard solely on tenor - to augment his working quartet. Trombonist Jeb Bishop is also on board to further enliven the ensemble. The music was recorded in concert at ...

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Radio

The Jazz Session #138: Mike Reed

The Jazz Session #138: Mike Reed

Source: Michael Ricci

Drummer Mike Reed is a mainstay on the Chicago music scene, both as a performer and a presenter. Reed and his band People, Places & Things have a new album called About Us (482 Music, 2009). Its part of a trilogy showcasing the past, present and future of the Chicago scene. In this interview, Reed talks about the sometimes overlooked cultural contributions of the third coast; why he decided to record this trilogy; and how he went about finding the ...

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Recording

New CD from Mike Reed's Loose Assembly Coming On 482 Music

New CD from Mike Reed's Loose Assembly Coming On 482 Music

Source: Improvised Communications

On April 24th, 482 Music will release Last Year's Ghost (482-1055), the debut recording by Chicago-based drummer/composer Mike Reed's three-year old quintet, Loose Assembly. Called “one of Chicago's most sublime Jazz outfits" by Time Out Chicago, the group features alto saxophonist Greg Ward, vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, cellist Tomeka Reid and bassist Josh Abrams. Last Year's Ghost documents aural poems Reed created based on the compositional ideas and freeform playing of his band mates, linked by the common theme of what ...

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Recording

Mike Reed Duos With Jim Baker, Nicole Mitchell and Jeff Parker on 482 Music

Mike Reed Duos With Jim Baker, Nicole Mitchell and Jeff Parker on 482 Music

Source: All About Jazz

AVON, CT -- Drummer Mike Reed joins forces with three fellow mainstays of the Chicago improvised music scene, Jim Baker (ARP synthesizer), Nicole Mitchell (flute) and Jeff Parker (guitar), for his first release under his own name, In The Context Of (482-1047), coming March 14th on 482 Music. This collection of eight improvised duets finds Reed performing with Parker on two tracks and Baker and Mitchell on three tracks each. Reed has worked extensively with all three players around Chicago ...

"More evidence of his talents, demonstrating his arranging and composing skills as well as his continuing development as a brilliant percussionist on the rise." —Troy Collins, All About Jazz

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Ritual and the...

Astral Spirits
2021

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Sun Beans Of...

Astral Spirits
2021

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…and then there’s...

Astral Spirits
2021

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The Weather Up There

Northern Spy Records
2020

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Flesh & Bone

482 Music
2017

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