Articles

Eric Reed at Smoke Jazz & Supper Club

By Nick Catalano

Hard Bop continues to find a home in NY's Smoke Jazz & Supper Club. For decades the room featured One for All -a group whose stalwart players Eric Alexander, Steve Davis, David Hazeltine, John Webber, Jim Rotondi, and Joe Farnsworth had critics comparing them to Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. These players often led smaller groups into Smoke with players such as Harold Mabern and other hard boppers. Last week (7-22) the club brought in Eric Reed and company ...

Smoke Sessions: Cyrus Chestnut, Orrin Evans and Eric Reed

By C. Michael Bailey

Cyrus Chestnut Midnight Melodies Smoke Sessions 2014 Elegance and economy characterize Cyrus Chestnut's art. Chestnut's career was the one Kenny Kirkland could have had had Kirkland's fate been different. Chestnut (and Evans and Reed) represent the generation given way to with the passings of Mulgrew Miller and Cedar Walton. Chestnut is a keeper of the flame, a lyrical and expressive pianist who likes to use notes in sculpting songs. Midnight Melodies was ...

Eric Reed: Something Beautiful

By Greg Simmons

Eric Reed's Something Beautiful is well-named: a collection of mostly standards, delivered with sensitive hands and unerring taste. The pianist shows a knack for choosing great material, mostly staying away from jazz's grossly overplayed warhorses in favor of lesser-known material that is, nonetheless, classic and elegant. The album offers a unified atmosphere of down- and mid-tempo melodies--sometimes melancholy, sometimes bouncy, and occasionally even uplifting. Jesse Tabish's “Black Tables" is almost hymn-like, with deep left-handed chords creating gravity under ...

Eric Reed: The Dancing Monk

By Greg Simmons

Every jazz pianist stands somewhere in the shadow of Thelonious Monk (1917-1982), and Eric Reed has embraced that shadow, with The Dancing Monk. Interpreting the near-mythic pianist/composer's music--let alone making an entire album of his tunes--poses significant challenges to any modern musician, and especially for a pianist. First, Monk's compositions are, indeed, challenging, in and of themselves; full of odd meters, syncopations, and some of the most counter-intuitive melodies ever written. Second, Monk's flat-fingered keyboard work was completely ...

Eric Reed: Sacred Jazz

By Eric Reed

Generally, the idea of “sacred jazz" either brings to mind Duke Ellington's three sacred concerts or causes confusion in the minds of those who are not cognizant of what is “sacred" or “jazz." Is it John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, Mary Lou Williams' Black Christ of the Andes or Ahmad Jamal's After Fajr? In all these cases, yes. In the broad sense of what is “sacred," the common thread that exists among the aforementioned references pays respect to the devotion ...

Eric Reed: Stand!

By Andrew Velez

This eighteenth release by pianist Eric Reed is a spiritual melding of gospel and jazz idioms. Though not yet 40, Reed has accumulated considerable mileage. He was with Gerald Wilson at a mere 16, enjoyed a long association with Wynton Marsalis, and displayed a marked flair for the American Songbook. This outing offers a rich outpouring of Reed as composer and orchestrator. The opening title track is a hard driving and muscular piece with an African-tinged reference ...

Eric Reed: Here

By J Hunter

"Here. This moment. Right now. That's not just a message inside the jewel case for Here, Eric Reed's new CD; it's also a mission statement.

The opener, “Stablemates, reveals a team working together towards a common goal. Reed's trio takes the Benny Golson standard to a more intimate level, while still preserving the ebullient feel of the original. The former Wynton Marsalis sideman maintains a smooth, reasonable voice from beginning to end, rooting his piano solos in simple, elegant phrases ...