Eric Reed and his trio will perform at the Jazz At The Strand series at the Historic Strand Theatre on the Marietta Square on Sunday, September 10 at 4pm. Sunday night at 9pm on Mainstream and Modern we'll feature my conversation with him as we talked about the upcoming show as well as his new record Black, Brown, and Blue (Smoke Sessions), and the power of Black artists.
Eric Reed was one of Jazz's young lions in the late 1980s when the wider world became aware of his talent on the piano. Added as a member of Wynton Marsalis' Septet as a teen, he then went on to play and tour with Marsalis, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra, Christian McBride's Inside Straight and many others. His work in recent years has become more contemplative, less reflective of Jazz and the public's expectations of him and more focused on what matters—an open exchange of ideas and culture. Black, Brown, and Blue features original music and songs from a variety of Black composers, including Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter, Benny Golson, Horace Silver, Buddy Collette, Buster Williams Stevie Wonder and Bill Withers. Reed is focused on Black and Brown composers at the expense of "The American Songbook", and the new record puts songs you may think you know into Reed's own expanding frame of reference.
There are still tickets available for the September 10 Jazz At The Strand performance of the Eric Reed Trio at earlsmithstrand.org
