Vernon Reid
(born August 22, 1958) is a British-born American guitarist, songwriter, composer and bandleader. Best known as the founder and primary songwriter of the heavy metal band Living Colour, Reid was named #66 on Rolling Stone
magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
Critic Steve Huey writes, "[Reid's] rampant eclecticism encompasses everything from heavy metal and punk to funk, R&B and avant-garde jazz, and his anarchic, lightning-fast solos have become something of a hallmark as well." [1]
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VERNON REID TICKETS
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Biography
Early life and career
Reid was born in
London, England to
Caribbean parents, but grew up in
New York City,
USA.
Reid first came to prominence in the 1980s in the band of drummer
Ronald Shannon Jackson. 1984's
Smash & Scatteration
was a duo record with guitarist
Bill Frisell.
In
1985, Reid co-founded the
Black Rock Coalition with journalist
Greg Tate and producer Konda Mason. Through the BRC, Reid hoped to counter the pigeonholing and marginalization of black musicians.
Living Colour
Reid is probably best known for leading
Living Colour. Early versions of the group formed in
New York City in 1983, but the personnel solidified in 1985-86, and Reid led the group for about another decade.
Among the highlights: a double platinum-selling debut album
Vivid
, released in 1988; its gold-certified successor,
Time's Up
, released 1990; two consecutive
Grammy Awards in the category of Best Hard Rock Performance; opening for the
Rolling Stones' 1989 "
Steel Wheels" tour; and appearing on the first
Lollapalooza tour in the summer of 1991. Living Colour released
Collideøscope
in October of 2003 on
Sanctuary Records.
Equipment
In recent years, Vernon has used custom
Hamer guitars, but he also has a relationship with Parker Guitars and has a signature guitar called the DF824VR, which is based on parker's new dragonfly model. it has hss emgx pickups, a floyd rose vibrato (it is the first parker guitar to have one) a 5-way mag pickup switching system and a roland MIDI pickup.
Solo career
In addition to his work with Living Colour, Reid has been engaged in a number of other projects. He released "Mistaken Identity", his first solo album in 1996 and has collaborated with the choreographers Bill T. Jones on "Still/Here" and Donald Byrd on "Jazztrain". He performed "Party 'Til The End of Time" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) with The Roots, an end of the millennium tribute featuring the music of Prince's album "1999". He also composed and performed "Bring Your Beats" a children's program for BAM.
Reid has also produced records by Resorte (a Mexican hard rock group) and two Grammy-nominated albums: "Papa" by the great African singer
Salif Keita and "Memphis Blood: The Sun Studio Sessions" by
James "Blood" Ulmer. Blood's most recent album, released in September of 2003, "No Escape From the Blues", was also produced by Reid. Reid also appears on "Guitar Oblique" (Knitting Factory Records) with guitarists
David Torn and
Elliott Sharp. Reid was also featured in the program presented by BAM and the Experience Music Project in Seattle entitled "Magic Science", which includes
Medeski Martin & Wood and the
Gil Evans Orchestra performing Gil Evans' arrangements of songs by
Jimi Hendrix.
Reid composed the score for the film
Paid In Full
, directed by
Charles Stone III (well known for creating the "Wasssup!" series of commercials for
Budweiser as well as directing three videos for Living Colour) and released by
Miramax in the fall of 2002. Reid also composed the score for the celebrated documentary "Ghosts of Attica" (directed by Brad Lichtenstein) which aired on
Court TV in the fall of 2001 and has been featured at several film festivals. He composed the score for another documentary directed by Lichtenstein, "Almost Home," which aired in 2006 on the PBS series,
Independent Lens.
Reid and
DJ Logic, calling themselves "Yohimbe Brothers", released an album in September, 2002 called "Front End Lifter". The Yohimbe Brothers have been touring on and off since the release of the album. Reid is also the music supervisor for the film "Mr. 3000" starring
Bernie Mac and directed by Charles Stone III; "Mr. 3000" is scheduled for release in the fall of 2004. Vernon's album with
Masque (Leon Gruenbaum - keyboards, Hank Schroy - bass and Marlon Browden - drums), an instrumental album entitled "Known Unknown", was released in April 2004, and On April 18th, 2006 Vernon Reid and
Masque released "Other True Self", both on
Favored Nations records, owned by another guitarist,
Steve Vai.
Reid has a prolific session output in a variety of contexts. He has played live or on record with the Roots, Eye & I, Mick Jagger, Ambitious Lovers, Rollins Band, Spearhead, Public Enemy, Mariah Carey, Tracey Chapman,
Ronald Shannon Jackson, Don Byron,
Defunkt,
Santana, Bernie Worrell,
MC 900 Foot Jesus,
B.B. King, Madalyne Peyroux, Meridiem, Jack Bruce, Terry Bozzio, and
DJ Spooky among many others.
In March 2007, Reid played with Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and G. Calvin Weston at Tonic in NYC, and Tritone in Philadelphia, which led them to record as Free Form Funky Freqs with the title of the recording called Urban Mythology Volume 1. European Tour in November and a soon to be released CD.
In July 2008 Vernon Reid assembled a one-off solo band for his appearance at the
G-TARanaki Guitar Festival in
Taranaki, New Zealand, with keyboard player Jonathan Crayford, bassist Crete Haami and drummer Magesh Magesh. Notably, at the
Puke Ariki "Midnight Session" concert, Vernon performed an all star jam with
Uli Jon Roth,
Gilby Clarke and
Alex Skolnick.
Discography
- Smash & Scatteration (with Bill Frisell)
(1984)
- Mistaken Identity
(1996)
- GTR OBLQ (with Elliott Sharp and David Torn)
(1998)
- This little room
(2000) unreleased
- Front End Lifter - Yohimbe Brothers
(2002)
- Right Back - Mitch Winston and the Band of Natural Selection
(2002)
- Known Unknown
(2004)
- The Tao Of Yo - Yohimbe Brothers
(2004)
- Other True Self
(2006)
- ''Urban Mythology Volume 1 - Free Form Funky Freqs (2007)
References
- allmusic ((( Vernon Reid > Overview )))