Tomeka Reid
Geometry Of Phenomena
This foursome is resolute in its acceptance of communal responsibility and creation. Vocalist Kyoko Kitamura sings and speaks in wordless flurries, matching and Taylor Ho Bynum’s brassy exhortations on cornet. Cellist Tomeka Reid and guitarist Joe Morris worry and pluck their respective strings, applying speed and torque in the loosing of spidery cascades of crinkled and crenelated tones. Pitch and timbre differentials are a big part of the interplay with instruments juxtaposed in bursts of acti…
Reid/Edwards/Coudoux
We maneuver through woody sounds created by individual movements and decisions. Our cello playing is free from classical patterns, a real achievement! It is not natural to develop one's own approach to this high culture instrument. In this trio there are three multi-layered variations of personal expressive will and power.
3+3
Much has happened to Tomeka Reid, who was already one of jazz's definitive figures in the 21st century, in the 4½ years since her last album by this all-star quintet. Most notably, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2022, one of the most prestigious awards in the creative arts field in the USA. The same year, she also won the DownBeat Critics Poll for miscellaneous instrument (despite many deserving talents emerging on the instrument, the jazz polls don't have cello as a category for reco…
Let Our Rejoicing Rise
*2022 stock* In the year that Juneteenth was finally declared a national U.S. holiday, 2021, Joe McPhee and Tomeka Reid united for a live concert in celebration. Multi-instrumentalist McPhee was deeply moved by the historical nature of the circumstances, the incredible freight of that history of oppression and liberation represented in the legislation, both the insanity of its overdueness and the joy of its institutionalization. As a preamble to the music, McPhee led off with two poems, read wit…
Eight Pieces for Two Cellos
*In process of stocking* Repertoire for cello represents a little-explored niche of the greater jazz songbook. In 2013, cellists Tomeka Reid and Fred Lonberg-Holm turned their arrangerly and composerly attention to this terrain, assembling a selection of four originals (three by Lonberg-Holm, one by Reid) and four works by other composers. The latter include “Pluck It” by pioneering jazz cellist Fred Katz, member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet and soundtrack composer for Roger Corman films; “In W…
Allium
Allium is the second recording by this chamber trio, a follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2018 release Ithra. On that record they made a singularly powerful statement delving into non-soloistic group interaction and compositional development in a free-improvised context. Allium ventures even further down that fertile path.
In fact it’s frankly difficult to believe these pieces weren’t pre-composed and rehearsed at length. The beginnings, endings, development, and structure of each one demon…
Geometry Of Trees
This foursome is resolute in its acceptance of communal responsibility and creation. Vocalist Kyoko Kitamura sings and speaks in wordless flurries matching Taylor Ho Bynum’s brassy exhortations on cornet. Cellist Tomeka Reid and guitarist Joe Morris worry and pluck their respective strings, applying speed and torque in the loosing of spidery cascades of crinkled and crenelated tones. Pitch and timbre differentials are a big part of the interplay with instruments juxtaposed in bursts of activity.
The Covid Tapes
Aerophonic Records presents The Covid Tapes by Dave Rempis, Tomeka Reid, Joshua Abrams, Tim Daisy and Tyler Damon. All music recorded between May and September 2020 during the COVID era. Solo tracks recorded by Dave Rempis at Unity Lutheran Church, Chicago. Rempis/Daisy Duo recorded by Dave Zuchowski at the Sugar Maple, Milwaukee. Rempis/Reid/Abrams, Rempis/Abrams/Damon, and Rempis/Damon recorded by Matt Butchko at Margate Park, Chicago. Mixed and mastered by Dave Zuchowski. Design by Johnathan …
Combinations
Joe Morris and Tomeka Reid offer a few new “standards” that are the fulcrum between a set of prepared instrument pieces where it is difficult to recognize either instrument and attention is absorbed by the overall density and character of sound, and a set notable for its sparseness as both Reid and Morris play primarily independent lines. Within that set, the effect, most apparent in the rare moments in which one musician briefly acknowledges the other then shifts onto a new independent line, is…
Signaling
**2020 stock** Cellist / composer Tomeka Reid and saxophonist / composer Nick Mazzarella have become valuable contributors to the Chicago music scene(s) for over a decade. This collection of duets demonstrates equally their instrumental skills and innate musicality. The saxophone / cello combination goes back to, at least, the '50s with the Chico Hamilton Quintet and recordings by Eric Dolphy and Ron Carter in the '60s. Most relevant here though is the pairing of Julius Hemphill and Abdul Wadud …