Home » Jazz Musicians » Ed Reed
Ed Reed
In his 84 years, Ed Reed has gained great insight into the joys and especially the sorrows of the human condition. The San Francisco Bay Area-based jazz vocalist, who made his recording debut in 2007 at the age of 78, has imparted what he has learned with consummate musical subtlety, emotion- searing depth of feeling, and the nuanced delivery of a master storyteller on his critically-acclaimed CDs. The first two, "Ed Reed Sings Love Stories" (2007) and "The Song Is You" (2008)are collections of tunes from the Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, and jazz traditions drawn from Reed’s near-encyclopedic knowledge of the Great American Songbook.
The 13 tunes on his third release, "Born to Be Blue" (2011) are more thematically focused on the poignant life lessons we all experience as human beings.
His fourth recording project, "I'm a Shy Guy," (October 1, 2013) a tribute to the Nat King Cole Trio and their music, reflects Reed's lifetime passion for the ballads and blues of the Trio—a rapidly rising music group, led by pianist-singer Nat Cole—that broke new ground in the 1940's during the era of big bands. Reed poignantly remembers himself as a self-conscious 14-year old in 1943, so shy that he "talked" to girls by singing King Cole Trio love songs to them on the phone. As a teenager in Los Angeles, Reed had the opportunity to see the Trio perform at his school, Jordan High in Watts and, when he had the chance to meet his hero after the concert, found himself too shy to say hello or shake Nat Cole's hand.
Reed pays homage to the King Cole Trio with 13 songs the group recorded during the 1940s, plus the post-trio Nat King Cole favorite “Unforgettable” from 1951. The song selection includes Reed’s distinctive treatments of the Trio hits “That Ain’t Right,” “I’m Lost,” “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” “I Just Can’t See for Lookin’,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” and “I’m a Shy Guy,” as well such lesser-known trio gems as Bobby Troup's “Baby, Baby All the Time;” Louis Jordan's “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby;” the hilarious break-up tune “Meet Me at No Special Place;” the whimsical “’Tis Autumn;” and the longing and regret in "I Realize Now," "That's the Beginning of the End," and “This Will Make You Laugh.”
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Reed relocated to Los Angeles at age 7 with his family where his father worked as a waiter on the Southern Pacific Railroad and was active in the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Ed Reed fell in love with jazz on the radio and, at age 11, and learned how to sing to chord changes from Charles Mingus, his then-teenage neighbor.
Read moreTags
Ed Reed: Ed Reed - I'm A Shy Guy: A Tribute to the King Cole Trio & Their Music
by C. Michael Bailey
San Francisco vocalist Ed Reed is a bona fide contemporary of West Coast jazz luminaries: Art Pepper, Frank Morgan, Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray and Hampton Hawes. Unlike that august group, Reed remains to tell his story, and by proxy, theirs' in the bargain. Like this same group, drugs (and in the case of Gray, murder) suspended Reed's musical career. Unlike Pepper and Morgan, who staged much heralded late-career comebacks, Reed did not first record until 2007 at age 78. Neither ...
read moreEd Reed: Born to Be Blue
by C. Michael Bailey
Ed Reed joins fellow West Coasters Art Pepper and Frank Morgan in returning to a critically acclaimed career previously derailed by substance abuse. After 40 years of scuffling, Reed cleaned up, became a chemical dependency treatment professional and began recording in earnest. Reed has released two recordings, Love Stories (Self Produced, 2007) and The Song is You (Blue Shorts Records, 2008), each well-received and now followed up by Born To Be Blue, featuring a youthful and upbeat take on Jon ...
read moreEd Reed: The Song Is You
by Elliott Simon
Ed Reed is a storyteller, one who pours both his heart and nearly 80 years of life experiences--which include vocal studies with Charles Mingus, time in the army and a drug addiction that landed Reed in prison on four separate occasions--into a phrase. On his recent first recording, Love Stories (2007), he debuted a lush tone that belied his age. Here, the inclusion of violinist Russell George's superb jazz phrasing as a part of Peck Allmond's sextet, ...
read moreEd Reed: Love Stories
by Michael P. Gladstone
On the occasion of his first album, singer Ed Reed has quite a story to tell. Originally from Cleveland, but raised in Watts, Reed went to high school with Little Esther Phillips and Bobby Nunn of The Robins ("Smokey Joe's Cafe"). The group shortly became known as The Coasters. The fellow who watched his sister's kids was Charles Mingus.
A heroin addiction cost Reed a good portion of his adult life. He served four prison terms in San ...
read more19th Annual Jazz On Fourth Street Festival, Berkeley, CA Lineup
Source:
Marshall Lamm Promotions & Public Relations
Presented by Fourth Street Merchants, KCSM/Jazz 91, Avalon Berkeley, and Berkeleyside, the 19th Annual Jazz on Fourth Street Festival will take place Sunday, May 18, from Noon – 5:00pm in Berkeley, CA on Fourth Street between Hearst and Virginia and is free. For more information, visit fourthstreet.com or call the hot line at (510) 526-6294. This free outdoor music festival, benefiting the jazz programs at Berkeley High School, will feature legendary jazz vocalist Ed Reed; the classic blues sounds from ...
read more
Jazz Vocalist Ed Reed's Tribute To The King Cole Trio, "I'm A Shy Guy," Due Oct. 1
Source:
Terri Hinte Publicity
In choosing the repertoire for I’m a Shy Guy, his fourth album, the acclaimed Bay Area jazz vocalist Ed Reed reached way back to an early inspiration and musical hero: Nat King Cole and the King Cole Trio. “Nobody else sounded like that,” Reed recalls, “and the musicianship was just fantastic.” Reed’s affinity with the material is obvious from the first notes of the new CD, which will be released by the singer’s Blue Shorts label on October 1. “Once ...
read more
Vocalist Ed Reed Announces East Coast Dates in Support of His Third Album "Born to be Blue"
Source:
Terri Hinte Publicity
San Francisco Bay Area jazz vocalist Ed Reed and his quartet will be performing three dates on the East Coast next month in support of his third CD, Born to Be Blue. He'll appear at the Jazz Standard 1/17, his third visit to the New York club in the last four years; Scullers in Boston 1/18 for the first time since 2008; and Cafe Eiko in Hartford, CT 1/21. In New York and Boston, Reed will be working with tenor ...
read more
Vocalist Ed Reed to Release His Third Album, "Born to be Blue," June 21
Source:
Terri Hinte Publicity
Ed Reed has pursued a most unconventional path to his present-day career as a highly regarded jazz singer. It was only four years ago that he released his recording debut, Ed Reed Sings Love Stories, when he was 78. The following year came The Song Is You, along with expanded touring opportunities, a guest spot on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, and a Wall Street Journal profile by Nat Hentoff. Reed also placed in the “Male Vocals, Rising Star" category of ...
read more
Vocalist Ed Reed to Release "The Song is You" on His Blue Shorts Label, May 20
Source:
Terri Hinte Publicity
One year ago, against all odds, singer Ed Reed made his recording debut at the age of 78. The CD, “Ed Reed Sings Love Stories," released on his own Blue Shorts label, was called “transporting" (Jazz Times) and “ravishing... the performance of a lifetime" (Stereophile); it “evokes feelings only attainable by someone who has really lived, and can live to tell about it" (All About Jazz). Reed's personal story--a decades-long struggle with heroin addiction, punctuated by prison stints; a hard-earned ...
read more
Ed Reed Sings Love Stories: A Stunning Debut at 78
Source:
Terri Hinte Publicity
Jazz history is full of prodigies whose early promise was cut short by drugs, prison, or premature death. Much rarer is the late bloomer, the artist who, after years or even decades of being derailed by personal problems and the pitfalls of the jazz life, fulfills his talent. Enter Ed Reed. Critic Andrew Gilbert has written that the Richmond, California resident is a “jazz singer in the truest sense." Drummer Tootie Heath called Reed “a great new voice." And singer ...
read more
"...possesses all the distilled emotion and narrative coherence of a jazz masterpiece." Andrew Gilbert, San Jose Mercury News, July 2011.
"Reed has developed a jazz voice that is distinct—full of the pain, sorrow, love and beauty that go along with taking that long, hard trail through life. All of that is on full display here. When Ed Reed sings don't expect scat—instead look for an intimate story every time." Frank Alkyer, DownBeat, July 2011
Photos
Music
Similar
Roberta Gambarini
vocals
Sony Holland
vocals
Sachal Vasandani
vocals
Rachael Price
vocals
Dee Daniels
vocals
Judy Wexler
vocals
Sue Oatts Tucker
vocals
Irene Atman
vocals
Giacomo Gates
vocals
Julie Kelly
vocals
Susan Krebs
vocals
Ray Brown Jr.
vocals
Kathleen Gorman
piano
David Grisman
mandolin
Meryl Romer
vocals
Angela DeNiro
vocals
Ed Reed
Instrument: Vocals
Born: February 2, 1929
Publicist: Terri Hinte Publicity
