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Damion Reid

Damion Reid hailing from West Covina, California a city east of Los Angeles. He is the son of well-respected bassist and astute operatic singer and teacher. By the age of three, Damion was already playing in church. It was around the age of twelve that Damion began being mentored by the world-renowned drummer Billy Higgins. During these formative years Billy's spirit for life and music was deeply seeded in Damion's fertile mind. Seeing Damion's ability to grasp the music both, analytically and conceptually it wasn't long before Billy invited him to be a part of his drum collective. As he began to mature musically he found himself frequenting Billy's club “The World Stage,” learning and playing with the likes of Billy Childs, George Bohanon and Oscar Brashear.

As Damion continued to cultivate his love for music through his high school years, he managed school life with professional obligations. Damion graduated High School and made the move to Boston, Massachusetts New England Conservatory of Music where he spent time with Cecil McBee, Danilo Perez, Fred Buda and George Russell as well as his musical peers. It was while in Boston between the years of 1998 and 1999 that he received the prestigious Alan Dawson scholarship. He then was accepted into the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of Southern California. Soon finding himself trekking to New York City to attend The New School. He then began performing and touring alongside Greg Osby, Terence Blanchard, Robert Glasper, Steve Lehman, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Jacky Terrasson, Ravi Coltrane, Reggie Workman, Marcus Belgrave, Lauryn Hill, Robert Hurst, Bilal, Meshell Ndegeocello, Jason Moran, Mark Shim, Mark Turner, Chihiro Yamanaka, Steve Coleman, Bunky Green and many others.

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10
Album Review

Steve Lehman Trio and Mark Turner: The Music of Anthony Braxton

Read "The Music of Anthony Braxton" reviewed by Troy Dostert


Anthony Braxton has long had a reputation as being one of the most abstruse and forbidding musicians of the jazz avant-garde. Whether it is his impossibly esoteric notation systems, or the bizarre instrumentation he sometimes features on his recordings--his Composition No. 19 (For 100 Tubas) being just one example--one must tread carefully when engaging this unique musical mind. Hence it is a pleasure to encounter saxophonists Steve Lehman and Mark Turner joining forces for a tribute to the maverick composer. ...

Album Review

Billy Mohler: The Eternal

Read "The Eternal" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


Tre splendidi album (Focus! del 2019, Anatomy del 2022, e Ultraviolet del 2024) registrati con lo stesso quartetto--e che quartetto (il leader al contrabbasso, Nate Wood alla batteria, Chris Speed ai sassofoni, Shane Endsley alla tromba)--avevano portato alla ribalta il nome di Billy Mohler ben oltre i confini del mondo del pop/rock dove, con il gruppo The Calling, aveva scalato le classifiche con la hit “Wherever You Will Go." Ma proseguire su sentieri già battuti, seppur con gli splendidi risultati ...

1
Album Review

John Escreet: The Epicenter Of Your Dreams

Read "The Epicenter Of Your Dreams" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


Il trio base è quello che nel 2022 licenziò il notevole Seismic Shift, ossia John Escreet al pianoforte, Eric Revis al contrabbasso, Damion Reid alla batteria. Per la realizzazione di Epicenter of Your Dreams la formazione si allarga a quartetto con l'aggiunta del sassofonista Mark Turner. Insomma una formazione di grande prestigio che curiosamente presenta musicisti nati a Los Angeles, cresciuti professionalmente a New York, e ritornati a L.A., con la parziale anomalia del britannico Escreet, che comunque ...

8
Album Review

John Escreet: The Epicenter Of Your Dreams

Read "The Epicenter Of Your Dreams" reviewed by Mark Corroto


There is that image from one of Sergio Leone's spaghetti Western films where three gunfighters stand in the dusty town center, guns drawn, waiting for someone to flinch. That depiction of the Old West is somewhat appropriate as the UK-born pianist, John Escreet, who was based in New York for nearly a decade, moved to Los Angeles. He traded his NY trio of John Hébert and Tyshawn Sorey for the L.A. gunfighters bassist Eric Revis and drummer Damion Reid. The ...

5
Album Review

Dan Rosenboom: Polarity

Read "Polarity" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


On this album, trumpeter Dan Rosenboom and his quartet engage in a free-wheeling session which comes off as a modern update of Wayne Shorter releases such as The All-Seeing Eye (Blue Note, 1966). He engages in playful genre-crossing and experimentation here which incorporate the sensibilities of hip-hop and ambient music as well as modern jazz. The album's key track is the marathon opener, “The Age of Snakes" in which Rosenboom's trumpet and Gavin Templeton's alto saxophone lazily float ...

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Album Review

Dan Rosenboom: Polarity

Read "Polarity" reviewed by Pat Youngspiel


Recently, Los Angeles-based trumpeter Dan Rosenboom has been experimenting with somewhat freer and edgier realms of improvisation, giving doomy metal influences a go on Trio Subliminal 2 (Orenda Records, 2022), and indulging high-energy trio interplay with plenty of delay effects and other sonic manipulation on Refraction (Orenda Records, 2021). Not to mention the opulent The Complete Boom Sessions (Orenda Records, 2022), which captured over 400-minutes, live to tape, recorded over five gigs at one of Los Angeles' premiere hubs for ...

2
Album Review

John Escreet: Seismic Shift

Read "Seismic Shift" reviewed by Mark Corroto


John Escreet's recording Seismic Shift, the pianist's first trio recording, might be the case for the return of warning labels on packaging. Not that there are explicit lyrics or violent images, it is just that the 52 minutes of music contained here are quite tempestuous and unrelenting. By design. Escreet is known for his wide-ranging interests in creative music. He has recorded in both the acoustic and electric realms, performing on instruments including the harpsichord, synthesizers, Fender Rhodes ...

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Eternal

Contagious Music
2025

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The Epicenter Of Your...

Blue Room Music
2024

buy

Polarity

Orenda Records
2023

buy

Xaybu: The Unseen

Pi Recordings
2022

buy

Seismic Shift

Whirlwind Recordings
2022

buy

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