RIP Steve Reid, drummer (1944-2010)

[clifford_thornton]

It's only been in recent years that I became intrigued by his work as a leader and a sideman. A strong and invigorating player who worked with Charles Tyler, Earl Cross, David Wertman and his own units, Reid studied Senegalese drumming in the 1960s and was a fairly integral part of the New York loft scene. In addition to recent collaborations with electronic artist Four Tet, much of the in-demand Mustevic catalog (a label he operated in the 1970s) has been reissued.

Way too young to go - he'll be missed.

[king ubu]

Sad news - way too young indeed!

[mjazzg]

I saw him live a couple of times with Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet) and enjoyed their recorded duets - will put one on now. Great drummer. Real shame.

[mjazzg]

Reid studied Senegalese drumming in the 1960s

His interest in Senegal can be witnessed on Daxaar released by the Steve Reid Ensemble in 2007. Reid and Hebden join a selection of Senegalese musicians in an album recorded in Daxaar, Senegal. A tremendously 'feelgood' album where the Reid/Hebden groove is very effectively augmented and 'groove' is the key word.

[clifford_thornton]

I've thought about buying that. Thanks for the rec.

[Chalupa]

I was lucky to see him perform last year w/ Kieran Hebden. I really like his "Odyssey of a Oblong Square" LP.

[clifford_thornton]

All those Mustevic LPs slay (well, I can't say all b/c I don't have the Les Walker solo). Clearly he was always evolving, however.

[JohnS]

Very sad news. Oblong Square tomorrow.

[ep1str0phy]

I'm on the boards so intermittently these days... I always seem to be dreading the RIPs that may or may not be there. Reid's music with the likes of Charles Tyler and Arthur Blythe has occupied many fine hours of mine these past few years--it was nice to see a resurgence, with Four Tet, before the sun set. Reid had a brawny, tight of the groove in even the wooliest of spots--really unique--in certain ways presaging broken beat (exploited, to some extent, in the Four Tet collabs). I'll refrain from words like underrated, master, and lost genius since the frequency with which they're bandied about upon death kind of cheapens both the meaning of those phrases and the genuine, living contributions of the dearly departed in life--but, seriously, I don't think I've ever heard a drummer who sounded quite like Steve Reid, which goes a very, very long way.

[clifford_thornton]

Lunchtime spin of side two of Rhythmatism and side two of Blythe's Metamorphosis - two VERY different approaches to percussion on those records by one hell of a player. Took some years for his work to go from "ahh, that's good" to "damn, what the fuck did he just do?!" in my experience. Dunno anything about broken beat or Four Tet, but would like to give more than a cursory listen to what he was up to recently.

[ep1str0phy]

I think what freaks me out about Reid's playing--and I will have to revisit those classic--and classic is probably the proper term--sessions in order to flesh this out, is that he doesn't sustain the pulse like either a bebop or any iconic free drummer I can think of. On a lot of that stuff he'll accent the downbeat (and maybe the 3) harder than the 2 and the 4 (as per bop convention)--sometimes eliding this inversion of the "natural" syncopation with elements of bop or post-bop vocabulary--sometimes not--but in doing so creating some weird effects: seemingly splitting a fast tempo in half, simulating a highlife rhythm, superimposing sustained, super janky open hi-hat hits over a medium fast or fast tempo (sounding something like a Motown backing track flown in over a Miles Davis record). He kind of sounds like Tony Williams and gets a lot of the basic elements of his sound from that school of thought, but he's clearly running his own show and, because of that, probably gets a way with a hell of a lot more; I think this stuff would be much more liable to "win" you notice from Miles than playing too loud or leaning on the tempo.

Kind of reminds me of something Louis Moholo said to me, which was that mbaqanga (South African urban music in mid-late century) didn't have any cymbal work--so when it came time for him to do it, he just went "screw this" and added the cymbals--the ultimate F*** you, of course, being playing almost nothing but cymbals and bass drum on a lot of his classics in the idiom (Dudu Pukwana's In the Townships. I think Steve Reid must have come out of a similar psychology... whether it was frustration with convention, technical limitations, technical virtuosity, a desire to play "like" a different kind of music, whatever--there's a palpable sense that timekeepers like this, who self-consciously tinker with the rote plans of attack, do so because they both can and should. (Which is why, at the end of the day, I'll always have a positive impression of Steve Reid's playing--much more so than an uber-virtuoso who was too scared to perform anything but incremental change... I mean, this is music and not universal health care.)

[clifford_thornton]

Thanks. Well put.

[JSngry]

The first time I really took note of him was upon hearing the reissue Rhythmatism, and that really messed me up, and that at a time whre I was beginning to think that not too much could.

RIP, thanks, and sorry it took me so damn long to get hip to this cat.

[Chuck Nessa]

Very sorry to hear this.

[ATR]

Great musician. Versatile and creative. Really enjoyed his work in the Charles Tyler group, particularly, which is where I heard him first.

[ep1str0phy]

Oh man--just listened to Rhythmatism again, and it's a monster. Reid actually makes it OK to turn the beat around--or, rather, when it happens in a way that sounds "unintentional," he straightens up like a pro, with an African level of natural logic. The last time I heard someone futz with rhythms with this strong a brains/balls ratio was listening to Blackwell with Waldron a few days ago. Crazy. And that band is a mother.

[brownie]

This is really sad!

Reid was the drummer on several of Charles Tyler's recordings (Voyage from Jericho, Live in Europe, Saga of the Outlaws, among others) and contributed mightily on the success of those dates!

[clifford_thornton]

Oh man--just listened to Rhythmatism again, and it's a monster. Reid actually makes it OK to turn the beat around--or, rather, when it happens in a way that sounds "unintentional," he straightens up like a pro, with an African level of natural logic. The last time I heard someone futz with rhythms with this strong a brains/balls ratio was listening to Blackwell with Waldron a few days ago. Crazy. And that band is a mother.

Probably the least 'talked-about' of the Mustevics but shit, it's verging on retarded. I wholly agree with your analysis.

Reid & Boykins definitely made those Tyler LPs what they were. Surf Ravin' indeed...

[mjazzg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4efjJoTcrA

short film of making of Daxaar

[clifford_thornton]

Wow, thanks for the heads' up.

[ATR]

If you can find a copy of http://www.allmusicguide.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:dcfyxqqgldfe~T1 for a reasonable price...

Great recordsfeaturing Steve Reid, combined to a single CD.

[clifford_thornton]

If you do vinyl, they're fairly cheap and easy to come by. Pity that IN's catalog is woefully under-represented in the digital realm.

[ep1str0phy]

Just listened to Nessa's amazing Saga of the Outlaws while cooking dinner, Odyssey of the Oblong Square on the way to and from teaching today. Beautiful stuff bolstered by some very interest rhythm section work.

Appropriate in some way, maybe--I was composing at around 4AM this morning and churned out something I dedicated to Steve Reid. There's a fine line between weird, swinging backbeat and all out no wave/disco thrash, but Reid walked it magnificently and its great knowing those lessons are left for us to learn...

[Pim]

Ive got the 2019 Soul Jazz reissue of his Nova album. And the sound.... really sucks. Does anyone know if that album wasn't recorded well? Or is for example the 2008 reissue on Universal Sound better? 

[clifford_thornton]

I have an original and it is a bit lo fi but that's part of its charm. Still a powerful record, certainly my favorite of Reid's Mustevic albums. Haven't heard the Universal Sound to compare. Ali Abuwi recorded it at Studio We, down on Eldridge and Rivington in the Lower East Side (the building is still there, luxury apartments above a deli), and always favored a much more raw and gritty approach to capturing sound.