ONCE YOU BECOME ADEPT AT YOUR TRADE, YOUR NEXT STEP IS TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO BEST USE IT. PIANIST ERIC REED, ONE OF THE MOST VERSATILE MUSICIANS AROUND, HAS BEEN WITH BANDS RANGING FROM WYNTON MARSALIS AS WELL AS BEING THE FIRST CALL SIDEMAN FOR VOCALISTS LIKE MARY STALLINGS AND JANIS SIEGEL. BUT WHAT’S MORE IMPORTANT, HE’S SEEN HIS CAREER AS A CALLING.
THE WORD “VOCATION” LITERALLY MEANS “ONE’S CALLING”. IT’S WHERE WE GET THE WORD “VOCAL” FROM. REED’S OWN RECORDINGS HAVE SHOWN HIS WIDE RANGING TOUCH, WITH ALBUMS THAT DISPLAY HIS ALLEGIANCE TO A) HIS CHURCH, WITH SOME WONDERFUL GOSPEL SESSIONS, B) STRAIGHTAHEAD JAZZ AND TO C) BOP PIONEER THELONIOUS MONK, WITH A TRIO OF SMOKING TRIBUTE ALBUMS, MOST RECENTLY THE ADVENTUROUS MONK.
WE RECENTLY CORNERED REED, JUST AS HE’S ABOUT TO EMBARK ON A NEW ASPECT OF HIS MUSICAL AND SPIRITUAL CALLING.
HOW DID YOU GET YOUR GIG WITH WYNTON MARSALIS WAY BACK IN THE 80s?
Wynton called me while I was going to Cal State Northridge, and he asked me to come out and play a couple of gigs. One in Chicago and another one in Southern Illinois University. Marcus Roberts was getting ready to start his own group, so Wynton was auditioning piano players. He asked me to come out for a couple of gigs. I had previously met him in a music school that I was going to in Los Angeles. That was in 1986
WHAT DID YOU LEARN IN THAT BAND?
Every night, being on the road for two years with musicians allows you to communicate and develop a very tight knit sound as a band, playing the same music and being on the road with each other. You develop a certain kind of rapport. I learned the importance of being able to make music and create on a nightly basis.
WAS THIS THE FIRST TIME YOU HAD A LONG TIME GIG LIKE THAT?
Traveling, yes. Before that, I had been playing mostly locally in Los Angeles with Jeff and John Clayton, Teddy Edwards, Larry Gales…I had been doing gigs around the city and was working nightly. So, the only difference was that I was now travelling.
DID MARSALIS GIVE YOU ANY PLAYING INSTRUCTIONS OR CAREER ADVICE?
Wynton is very specific about what he wants to hear in his music. There were always a bunch of instructions. He was very specific about the style, what to play, what ideas, all of that.
DID YOU LIKE THAT?
No.
I also worked with Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard and Kenny Garrett. I’ve been working with a lot of musicians and I guess that the band that I played in that was my favorite musical experience so far has to be my playing with Buster Williams. I’ve been playing with Buster Williams off and on for some years now. Buster’s music is just so expansive-it has its own set of specifics, and there are certain things that he wants to hear, but only in certain spots. He’ll want to hear a specific chord played a certain way in certain passages. The rest of the music he just leaves up to you. We work as a quartet with Cincy Blackman and Bennie Maupin.
That’s my favorite band as a sideman. As a bandleader, Buster Williams is 72 years old, and he’s played with EVERYBODY. He’s everybody’s favorite bassist. So, what Buster brings to the table is his experience and wisdom, not only as a bassist but as a human being. What I appreciate about that is that his personality and character comes through in his music, and the only thing that he expects of you is 100%.To know and understand the music, and to play the vibe of the music, whatever the song is.
THE SINGERS ALSO LIKE YOU. WHAT ATTRACTS THEM TO YOU BESIDES YOUR CHARM?
I don’t think it’s even that! (laughs) What I think I bring to the table is my experience with singers from playing in the church, because I was always playing for singers in church music. The idea and the art of accompaniment in the church is extremely important, because you have to know how to play something that is going to accompany whatever the mood or the setting of the service is at the time. If it’s during prayer time, for example, you have to know how to play music that’s appropriate for prayer. If there’s an exciting moment that’s taking place in the service at that moment, then you have to play music that’s appropriate for that. So, I believe that all of those experiences and all of those dynamics allow me to accompany singers in a sensitive and appropriate way because I’m trying to enhance what it is they are doing and to give them musical support.
LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS, YOU HAVE TO BE “A SERVANT OF ALL”
Well, you have to be. What else is art for?
WHEN YOU PLAYED FOR YOUR FATHER, WHAT DENOMINATION WAS THAT?
He was a Baptist minister. I started playing at age five.
WHEN DID YOU MAKE THE TRANSITION FROM CHURCH MUSIC TO JAZZ?
You know, they weren’t separate. I was introduced to music at a very early age because I was always surrounded by music and musicians. My father used to sing in gospel quartets; my brother played guitar and we always had music in the house. My next door neighbor was best friends with (pianist) Bobby Timmons, so there was always music around and I heard everything all at once. On the radio I might hear Bill Withers , on the record player I might hear Aretha Frankliln, and at church I heard my father sing; when I was taking private lessons I heard classical music and when I was in public school I heard rap music. It was all kind of at the same time.
So, for me, and I’m actually trying to get back to that earlier existence of reconnecting with and embracing music as music and not as broken down into different genres, you know, like today. When I heard Ramsey Lewis and Horace Silver and Dave Brubeck, there were traces of that in some of the piano music that I heard by some of the church musicians. I didn’t know that there was a difference; I was five years old at the time. I knew that the jazz that I heard , most that I heard weren’t singers. Then, in church, it was mostly singers. So I thought at that time that one form of music used singers and the other one didn’t so much. So, it wasn’t a transition as much as an exposure.
DID YOUR DAD HAVE ANY PROBLEM WITH YOU PLAYING WHAT THEY USED TO CALL “THE DEVIL’S MUSIC”?
Not at all; he was just glad that I was playing music.
THERE’S ALWAYS BEEN THAT ARGUMENT ABOUT WHERE JAZZ STARTED. THE BROTHELS VS THE CHURCH.
You hear the elements of church in all jazz. Here’s the proof: think of Chicago in the late to mid 1920s. Jazz was in full effect by that time. But, think about who was alive and playing in Chicago at that time. It’s going to blow your mind. Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Thomas Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, Bix Beiderbecke. They were all in Chicago at the same time. Then, people will say “New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz.” That’s debatable; none of us alive now can attest to it one way or the other, and the country is constantly re-defining itself. So, I don’t really know what came first necessarily, but we do know that the combination of slave songs, blues songs and European harmonies…I don’t think where or when it started is really as important as where it’s going. What’s important is what’s happening now.
The significance for me is “What am I doing with the music right at this moment?” Because I have now embraced the idea of what I’m now doing is not about my career, but about my ministry.
AND, WHAT IS YOUR MINISTRY?
What does “ministry” mean? Ministry is service. As an artist, as someone who has been given a gift from God, it’s my job, responsibility and obligation to give praise and worship to Him for the gift and then to share it, edifying and exhorting people.
WHICH PEOPLE? IN YOUR BAND OR IN THE AUDIENCE
People-whoever has ears to hear.
WHEN DID IT CLICK WITH YOU THAT YOU WANTED YOUR MUSIC TO BE A MINISTRY AS OPPOSED TO A “CAREER”?
I suppose that it’s only been in recent times that I have realized what my real purpose is. I’ve always known what I’ve wanted, but often times as a believer and follower of Christ, what we want doesn’t always line up with what God wants for us. So, I’ve had to embrace what’s going on here. Things were changing; I was getting a little confused and was getting a little disillusioned with the so-called “jazz scene.” It was because God was finally getting through to me; I was finally able to understand, recognize and hear that “I’ve got so much more for you to do than to just try to become a bigwig on the jazz scene.” God was telling me “I’ve given you a gift to share with the whole world, but you only want to impact the jazz scene. “
So, I realized that I wasn’t doing enough. I wasn’t casting my net widely enough.
WHAT ARE YOU NOW DOING BESIDES THE JAZZ SCENE
I go to school. I just finished doing a few months of performances at the public schools, talking to young people about democracy and civil rights, and using jazz to do it. I still minister in churches from time to time. Wherever it is that I’m invited, or wherever it is that God sends me, that’s where I’ll go.
AND THE YOUNG KIDS THAT ARE IN YOUR BAND LOVE YOU.
Well, they’re great musicians. God really blessed with them. I didn’t find them; they found me and we just ended up in the same situation. We have mutual friends, so it was obviously no accident. They are dedicated, they’re talented and fantastic musicians and I’ve been blessed to have them in my band because it’s a wonderful feeling to be on stage with like-minded people who understand what this is all about.
YOU ALWAYS SEEM TO GO BACK TO THE MUSIC OF THELONIOUS MONK. WHAT’S THE CONNECTION BETWEEN YOU TWO?
There’s actually quite a bit after I discovered things from a wonderful biography by Dr. Robin Kelley that was written a couple of years ago. We both had our roots in both the church and in North Carolina. My father and Monk were both born in North Carolina. We both came into jazz in terms of our literacy and seriousness around the same age of 11-12 years old. He was playing as an accompanist to ministers and singers in the Pentecostal church . A lot of people don’t even know that part of him.
People don’t realize how so many jazz musicians have ties to the church. Nat “King” Cole, Fats Waller, Dave Brubeck, Horace Silver…he loved gospel music. Loved it, and he used to listen to church services on the radio in Norwalk, Connecticut.
So, the thing with Monk makes perfect sense, because he’s got the feelings, sounds and roots of the church with what he does. So then if you go back to the earlier question, I believe that jazz started in the church for sure, because so many jazz artists from that early period had so many ties to it.
HOW DOES YOUR FAITH GUIDE YOU NOW?
That’s such a multi-layered questions. It’s not a separate part of my world. It permeates, influences and affects my entire world. I’m nothing without it. Without faith, the Bible says, it’s impossible to please the Lord. Without faith I couldn’t get up every morning and do what I do. I get up every morning and communicate with God and ask Him to bless and guide my footsteps. I can’t imagine living my life and making my decisions without first consulting God, or at least asking Him to at least bless the decision, and then ask myself “Is this really something I’m supposed to do?” So I ask Him “I’m thinking of doing this or going there, and I really want you to be a part of this.”
So, my faith is stronger than ever now because of the times that we’re living in. These present times are very dark and kind of discouraging and scary. Things are changing quickly; much more quickly than they ever have with technology and things like that. And I’m just trying to survive in this time.
So, my faith is everything. I’m nothing without God.
WHAT FUTURE PROJECTS ARE ON YOUR HEART.
Lord willing, I’m releasing a live project, Live From Smoke in September. Then, I’m going to take a long Sabbatical from recording, because every now and then you need a break. Jesus would go away to pray, so I’ve got to get away to get refreshed. Come up with some things that I want to do and work on, and I hope to be able to release some new things in 2016.
I find myself less concerned with calendar days and working to the clock, and more with just allowing God to speak to me and say “OK. Go ahead and move now.” Or, “You don’t have to put out another record this year, or in 2016.” I’ve got quite a discography that I’m well represented by, but the problem is that I’m still continuing to grow. So, if I don’t document what I’m doing as I grow, who’s going to hear it? I want to make music that is both relevant and fresh, and I want the music to have the most positive and profound impact on people so that God can be glorified.
PIANIST ERIC REED CONTINUES THE PATH LONG BEFORE CARVED OUT BY MUSICAL PILGRIMS. ON TOP OF EVERY NEW PIECE HE WAS ABOUT TO COMPOSE, JS BACH WOULD WRITE “JESUS HELP ME.” AT THE COMPLETION OF THE PIECE, HE WOULD INSCRIBE “TO GOD BE THE GLORY.” EVERY ARTIST IS ON A QUEST, AND FOLLOWING REED’S PROGRESS AS A PILGRIM IS AN INSPIRATION TO US ALL ON A MULTITUDE OF LEVELS. STAY TUNED.