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Steve Reid

Began playing professionally at age 16. Recorded first record with Martha & Vandella's (Motown) at age 17, working in the Apollo Theatre house band, under the direction of Quincy Jones.

Worked his way through college (Aldelphi University- Garden City, New York) playing jazz six nights a week. Graduated 1965. B.A. Degree.

Went to Africa for three years--performing with various African bands (e.g. Guy Warren, Fela Ransome Kuti, Alpha Jazz Band, Leone Starrs, Black Star Tour) for the governments of several African nations including Nigeria, Liberia, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Congo, Morocco and Egypt.

First jazz musician to receive first of several grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, under the chairmanship of Nancy Hanks. Documented in the appendix to "This Business of Music" published by Billboard.

Began working with various artists. Worked in various productions (The wiz) on and off Broadway, (Don’t Bother Me I Can't Cope, The Connection).Began travelling extensively in Europe (tour for Swedish government, French government, Israel) playing in Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Holland, Norway, Denmark, as well as Greenland Canada.

In the 1970's owned and managed Mustervic Sound Records, an independent jazz label. Served as Co-director of Musicians of Brooklyn Initiative (MOBI). Served as musical director of Sounds in Motion, a dance troups.

Steve Reid's style is heavily influenced by African rhythms and modal harmonics of twelve tone explorations of John Coltrane.

Steve Reid is a member of Broadcast Music Inc.(BMI), the American Federation of Musicians Local 802 of the AFL-CIO, card OR4488, since 1965,Blacck Music Association, and the Jazz Foundation.

Steve Reaid has played with: Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Martha Raye, Dionne Warwick, T-Bone Walker, Archie Shepp, Chief Bey, *Olatungi, Arthur Blythe, Lester Bowie, Walter Davis, Charles MacPherson, Dexxter Gordon,Gary Bartz, Curtis Fuller, James Brown, Martha Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Les Walker, David Murray, Sam Rivers, Peggy Lee, Leon Thomas, Guy Warren, Fela, Randy Weston, Mal Waldron, Marion Macparland, Chaka Chan, Cbo Didley, Fats Domino, Henry Threadgill, Miles Davis, Warren Smith, SUN RA, Loonie Smith Horace Silver, Barnum & Bailey Circus, Sound, In Motion Dance Troupe, amongst others.

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1,014
Interview

Steve Reid: Staying in the Rhythms

Read "Steve Reid: Staying in the Rhythms" reviewed by Ian Patterson


A sell-out crowd and a standing ovation at the London Jazz Festival concert to launch Daxaar (Domino Records, 2007) is a sure sign that veteran drummer Steve Reid is enjoying something of an Indian summer. Since teaming up with electronics improviser Kieran Hebden in 2006, Domino Records has released three albums of their cutting-edge collaborations, and Steve Reid has reached a whole new audience with his African-inspired, jazz improvisations.

In a sense, Reid and Hebden are revisiting the ...

315
Album Review

Steve Reid Ensemble: Daxaar

Read "Daxaar" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Forty years have passed since drummer Steve Reid journeyed for three years in Africa, learning the roots of rhythm with master percussionist Guy Warren and in the band of Fela Kuti. For Steve Reid, returning to the continent of rhythm to record Daxaar in Senegal is no mere nostalgia trip: “The first time I went to learn and this time I was just going to give and enjoy, and find out what new thing we could discover together. The result ...

380
Album Review

Steve Reid Ensemble: Daxaar

Read "Daxaar" reviewed by Chris May


At age 62, most people are slowing down a little, taking fewer risks and carefully pre-planning their activities. Not so Steve Reid. The Bronx-born drummer, whose recording debut, aged 19, was on Martha & The Vandellas' iconic “Dancing In The Street," and who went on to work with many of the “new thing" movers and shakers of the late 1960s and early 1970s, still lives by the freewheeling, devil-may-care zeitgeist which prevailed during his formative years. He trusts his instincts ...

444
Album Review

Steve Reid Ensemble: Spirit Walk

Read "Spirit Walk" reviewed by Chris May


An uber-visceral, trance-centric celebration of Great Black Music ancient-to-modern--mixing up free improv, Afrobeat, the astral jazz of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane, North African Sufi music, early '70s electric Miles, chicken shack B3 grooves, Gil Scott Heron and the Last Poets, and more, all of it laced with real time electronica--Spirit Walk is serious mindbending business, as in free your ass and your mind will follow.

Led by the Bronx-born, currently Swiss-based, itinerant US drummer Steve Reid and recorded in ...

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1

Recording

Previously Unknown Steve Reid's Recording (2000) Is Now On Bandcamp!

Previously Unknown Steve Reid's Recording (2000) Is Now On Bandcamp!

Source: Lena Bloch

After 20 years, I finally decided to go ahead and release this exciting album on Bandcamp. It demonstrates Steve Reid extraordinary ability to spontaneously orchestrate within a jazz quartet, his inventiveness and wide range of dynamics, whether in a modal tune, a free-jazz composition or a romantic jazz standard. The bassist Chris Lachotta met Steve Reid in Munich in the spring of 2000, and he introduced Steve to Boris Netsvetaev and Lena Bloch, who had already been playing with Chris ...

76

Recording

Steve Reid, Kieran Hebden and Mats Gustafsson - Live at the South Bank (Smalltown Superjazz, 2011)

Steve Reid, Kieran Hebden and Mats Gustafsson - Live at the South Bank (Smalltown Superjazz, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

The great drummer Steve Reid enjoyed a fantastic career, playing with everyone from R&B singers to free jazz musicians. He recorded two wonderful albums in the 1970's, Novaand Rhythmatismbefore keeping a lower profile the remainder of the decade. In the 2000's he had a career renaissance, teaming up with the electronic musician Kieran Hebden to produce a number of albums that blurred the boundaries of jazz and electronic music. The two reunite here, joined by Swedish free-jazz saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, ...

361

Obituary

Steve Reid: 1944-2010

Steve Reid: 1944-2010

Source: Something Else!

On Monday night, drumming great Steve Reid died at the age of sixty-six after a battle with cancer. He leaves behind a legacy that's explicitly known by few but surely felt by many. A couple of years ago we profiled what is sadly now his last record released in his lifetime, the superb Daxaar, the result of an inspired collaboration with Kieren Hebden (Four Tet). Below is a reprint of that original review, which also sheds light on his amazing ...

145

Obituary

RIP Steve Reid

RIP Steve Reid

Source: Giant Step

“Devastated by the news that my friend drummer Steve Reid passed away last night in New York--a true inspiration who will be greatly missed." --Gilles Peterson 4/13/2010

We were lucky enough to have Steve Reid, the legendary drummer at a classic Giant Step 2005 event in NYC: Gilles Peterson Presents 'The BBC Sessions Live'. The night featured Steve Reid and Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet) with artists like Larry Mizell, Dwele, Bilal, Jazmine Sullivan, Amp Fiddler, Robert Glasper and Heavy. ...

301

Obituary

R.I.P.: Jazz Drummer Steve Reid Dies at 66

R.I.P.: Jazz Drummer Steve Reid Dies at 66

Source: Michael Ricci

Domino Records announced today that percussionist Steve Reid, who performed with artists as varied as Martha Reeves, Miles Davis and Four Tet's Kieran Hebden, died in his sleep Monday after a fight with cancer. Perhaps most heard on Martha & the Vandellas' “Dancing in the Street," he also had a brief stint backing James Brown (that's him on the funk standard “Popcorn"). Reid also performed with Fela Kuti in Africa before his career was briefly derailed by serving time for ...

124

Event

Steve Reid Ensemble at the Jazz Cafe London

Steve Reid Ensemble at the Jazz Cafe London

Source: Michael Ricci

Mean Fiddler & Elastic Artists presents THE STEVE REID ENSEMBLE 9th November 2009 @ The Jazz Cafe 5, Parkway, Camden, London, NW1 7PG 14 from seetickets.co.uk Doors: 7pm The Steve Reid Ensemble are set to play an exclusive London show at The Jazz Cafe on Monday 9th November. The cult free-Jazz drummer and percussionist has an illustrious career working with the likes of Miles Davies, James Brown, Sun Ra and Fela Kuti as well ...

158

Recording

Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid:NYC

Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid:NYC

Source: JamBase

By: Josh Potter

It may seem untimely that this review is running almost one year to the day after Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid sequestered themselves in NYC's famous Avatar Studio for two days of recording. At the rate that the world, and thus music, changes these days, a year is more than enough time to render ideas, sounds and whole projects obsolete. Some artists weather this cycle by producing pop tunes with such long nuclear half lives that their ...

62

Interview

Veteran Drummer Steve Reid Interviewed at AAJ

Veteran Drummer Steve Reid Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

A sell-out crowd and a standing ovation at the London Jazz Festival concert to launch Daxaar (Domino Records, 2007) is a sure sign that veteran drummer Steve Reid is enjoying something of an Indian summer. Since teaming up with electronics improviser Kieran Hebden in 2006, Domino Records has released three albums of their cutting-edge collaborations, and Steve Reid has reached a whole new audience with his African-inspired, jazz improvisations.

In a sense, Reid and Hebden are revisiting the spirit of ...

94

Performance / Tour

Kieran Hebden Of Four Tet Tours With Legendary Jazz Drummer Steve Reid In Support Of Two-Part Series On Domino

Kieran Hebden Of Four Tet Tours With Legendary Jazz Drummer Steve Reid In Support Of Two-Part Series On Domino

Source: All About Jazz

"My life changed the day we recorded the Exchange sessions. I couldn't believe I was involved in making this music. It was such a revelation to be able to create improvised music with this epitome of African-American rhythmic drum tradition"--Kieran Hebden

Kieran Hebden is a name you most likely already recognize via his groundbreaking work as Four Tet, and as a member of post-rock collective Fridge. From his debut album Dialogue to his most recent full-length Everything Ecstatic, Kieran's sound ...

111

Performance / Tour

Kieran Hebden Of Four Tet Tours With Legendary Jazz Drummer Steve Reid In Support Of Two-Part Series On Domino

Kieran Hebden Of Four Tet Tours With Legendary Jazz Drummer Steve Reid In Support Of Two-Part Series On Domino

Source: All About Jazz

"My life changed the day we recorded the Exchange sessions. I couldn't believe I was involved in making this music. It was such a revelation to be able to create improvised music with this epitome of African-American rhythmic drum tradition." - Kieran Hebden

Kieran Hebden is a name you most likely already recognize via his groundbreaking work as Four Tet, and as a member of post-rock collective Fridge. From his debut album Dialogue to his most recent full-length Everything Ecstatic, ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Daxaar

Domino Records (UK)
2007

buy

The Exchange Sessions...

CE Jazz & Blues/City Hall Records
2006

buy

Spirit Walk

Soul Jazz Records
2005

buy

Steve Reid Quartet...

Mustevic Records
2000

buy

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