Reggie Workman

Reggie Workman has long been one of the most technically gifted of all bassists, a brilliant player whose versatile style fits into both hard bop and very avant-garde settings. He played piano, tuba, and euphonium early on but settled on bass in the mid-'50s. After working regularly with Gigi Gryce (1958), Red Garland, and Roy Haynes, he was a member of the John Coltrane Quartet for much of 1961, participating in several important recordings and even appearing with Coltrane and Eric Dolphy on a half-hour West German television show that is currently available on video (The Coltrane Legacy). After Jimmy Garrison took his place with Coltrane, Workman became a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers (1962-1964) and was in the groups of Yusef Lateef (1964-65), Herbie Mann, and Thelonious Monk (1967). He recorded frequently in the 1960s (including many Blue Note dates and Archie Shepp's classic Four for Trane).

Since that time, Workman has been both an educator (serving on the faculty of music schools including the University of Michigan) and a working musician, and has played with numerous legendary jazz musicians including Max Roach, Art Farmer, Mal Waldron, David Murray, Sam Rivers, and Andrew Hill (Rivers and Hill joined Workman for the 1993 session, Summit Conference). In the 1980s, Workman began leading his own group, the Reggie Workman Ensemble. He also began a collaboration with pianist Marilyn Crispell that lasted into the next decade (the two acclaimed musicians reunited for a festival performance in 2000). During the '90s, Workman was not only active with his own ensemble, but also in Trio Three, with Andrew Cyrille and Oliver Lake, and Reggie Workman's Grooveship and Extravaganza.

In recognition of Reggie Workman's international performances and recordings spanning over 40 years, he was named a Living Legend by the African-American Historical and Cultural Museum in his hometown of Philadelphia; he is also a recipient of the Eubie Blake Award.

Mal Waldron / Steve Lacy: The Mighty Warriors

Read "The Mighty Warriors" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
April 9, 2024

Mal Waldron and Steve Lacy first played together in 1958 at the Bowery neighborhood's Five Spot. Their association was long, if not necessarily prolific on record. Though their personal styles contrasted, they frequently existed in a parallel universe. Both expatriates lived in Paris, were predisposed to the avant-garde, and shared a deep appreciation for Thelonious Monk's music. They performed and recorded until 2002 when Waldron died. Barcelona-based Elemental Music Records acquired the previously unreleased recordings of Lacy and Waldron from ...

Album Review

Ivo Perelman, Chad Fowler, Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille: Embracing the Unknown

Read "Embracing the Unknown" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
March 27, 2024

Since founding Mahakala Music in 2019, saxophonist Chad Fowler has done as much as anyone to continue the spirit of unfettered free jazz, drawing on an illustrious roster which includes veterans such as William Parker, Matthew Shipp, Joe McPhee, Ivo Perelman and many others, with Fowler himself frequently appearing alongside them. The label is also doing a superb job of bringing together cross-generational assemblages of musicians, as on 2022's Alien Skin, which brought Shipp, Parker and Perelman together with Fowler, ...

Album Review

Mal Waldron - Steve Lacy: The Mighty Warriors

Read "The Mighty Warriors" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
March 26, 2024

Producer/jazz detective Zev Feldman is still at it, ferreting out unreleased recordings from jazz giants of the past and releasing them with buffed-up sound quality and first-rate packaging. Long lost recordings from pianists Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Art Tatum and Ahmad Jamal have seen the light of the twenty-first century, thanks to Feldman, as has newly discovered music from trumpeter Chet Baker. Now it is pianist Mal Waldron (1925 -2002) and soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy's (1934 -2004) turn, with The ...

Album Review

Ivo Perelman / Chad Fowler / Reggie Workman / Andrew Cyrille: Embracing the Unknown

Read "Embracing the Unknown" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
March 25, 2024

Let's explore the title of saxophonist Ivo Perelman's latest release, Embracing the Unknown. His quartet with fellow saxophonist Chad Fowler, plus jazz legends Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille embrace, or welcome, adopt, and maybe better stated, champion the unknown. This exercise in instant composing guides listeners through the mysterious, the new, the novel, the undiscovered, i.e. the unknown. But then again, doesn't every Ivo Perelman recording embrace the unknown? With his one hundred plus (and counting) discography, the ...

Album Review

New York Art Quartet: New York Art Quartet Revisited

Read "New York Art Quartet Revisited" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
January 9, 2024

Questa preziosa (ancora una volta) riedizione di oltre un'ora e un quarto di musica riunisce i primi due album di uno dei gruppi più leggendari della stagione free, il primo intitolato semplicemente col suo nome e pubblicato dall'altrettanto leggendaria ESP fondata nel 1963 da Bernard Stollman (incisione del 16 novembre 1964), il secondo, Mohawk, di pochi mesi successivo (17 luglio 1965), edito su Fontana. Il gruppo è per tre quarti identico in entrambe le occasioni, allineando figure nodali di quella ...

Album Review

Bill Dixon: With Archie Shepp, 7-Tette & Orchestra Revisited

Read "With Archie Shepp, 7-Tette & Orchestra Revisited" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
September 17, 2023

If Bill Dixon is today, in 2023, less widely remembered than other New Thing warriors such as Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler, it is partly because he had little desire for celebrity, devoting much of his energy to organizing on behalf of his fellow musicians and composers, and teaching. In 1964, midway through making the 1962-1967 recordings collected on this album, Dixon organized the historic October Revolution in Jazz at the Cellar Café in Manhattan, which ...

Album Review

John Coltrane: Evenings At The Village Gate

Read "Evenings At The Village Gate" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
July 14, 2023

All music is, as are all our greater gestures and pursuits--poetry, painting, literature, sculpture, dance--spiritual by nature. An outreach by the artist and thus, by extension, us, beyond the daily argot of the ordinary. But sometimes those instances are so far and in-between, so masked by the lawlessness of the present moment, that our higher selves are forgotten, or worse, denied. And sometimes the music is downright holy. Welcome to the church known as the Village Gate. Welcome ...

Event

National Jazz Museum In Harlem - Benefit Concert - June 10 - Dianne Reeves

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations
April 21, 2015

National Jazz Museum in Harlem Benefit Concert - June 10 - 7:30PM The Kaye Playhouse - Hunter College Featuring Dianne Reeves & Special Guest Honoring Reggie Workman & Albert Maysles (In Memoriam) 2015 GALA BENEFIT CONCERT Featuring: DIANNE REEVES Acclaimed Jazz Vocalist & Grammy Award Winner Honoring: REGGIE WORKMAN Bassist, Composer, Educator, Producer Legends of Jazz Award ALBERT MAYSLES, In Memoriam And ...
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Performance / Tour

Reggie Workman's African-American Legacy Project (AALP) in Concert @ HSA, Sat., Nov. 13, 11- 2pm

Source: The Cinarae Group
November 9, 2010

Don't miss Reggie Workman's African-American Legacy Project (AALP) in Concert @ HSA, Nov. 13, 11- 2pm a glorious 20-piece orchestra and 18-piece chorus celebration co-created by Jazz luminaries, legendary bassist Reggie Workman and trumpet titan and conductor, Charles Tolliver. Featuring Choral Conductor Richard Harper and talented HSA and community students of the AALP Workshop Rehearsal series. Witness the AALP's virtual who's who of first call musicians: Jazz stalwarts (including Billy Harper, t. sax. (Max Roach) Neil Clarke, percussion(Randy Weston)), emerging ...
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Performance / Tour

New School John Coltrane Repertory Ensemble (Directed by Reggie Workman) @ The New School Performance Space on May 17th

Source: Michael Ricci
May 17, 2010

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Performance / Tour

Trio 3 (Oliver Lake / Reggie Workman / Andrew Cyrille) @ Barnes & Noble, Cool Mondays Mini-Showcase/Signing, July 20, 6PM

Source: The Cinarae Group
July 18, 2009

Jazz masters Oliver Lake (sax), Reggie Workman (bass) and Andrew Cyrille (drums) showcase selections from their exciting new release, TRIO 3 (Lake/Workman/Cyrille) + Geri Allen, At This Time.

TRIO 3 (Lake/Workman/Cyrille) Barnes and Noble Cool Mondays Series Mini-Showcase/Signing Mon., July 20, 6pm Lincoln Triangle, 1972 Broadway @ W. 66th, NYC FREE

COMING IN AUGUST Don't miss TRIO 3 + Geri Allen @ Birdland, August 5-8, 8:30 & 11pm sets. BIRDLAND ...
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217

Contest

Announcing the Winners of the Origin Records "Hal Galper/Reggie Workman/Rashied Ali -- Art-Work" Giveaway!

Source: All About Jazz
April 6, 2009

385

Contest

Enter the Origin Records "Hal Galper/Reggie Workman/Rashied Ali - Art-Work" Giveaway Contest

Source: All About Jazz
March 6, 2009

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the Origin Records “Hal Galper/Reggie Workman/Rashied Ali - Art-Work“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on April 5th. Click here to enter the contest

(Following Hal Galper at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.)

Good luck! Your Friends at Origin Records

One of the jazz world's most dynamic pianists, Hal Galper continues the exploration of his “rubato" concept of ...
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192

Performance / Tour

Reggie Workman's New School Annual Dual Concerts, December 15 @ The New School

Source: The Cinarae Group
December 14, 2008

Legendary Bassist Reggie Workman directs the “next generation" of Jazz with his New School Annual Dual Concerts event featuring the New School's Futuristic and Coltrane Ensembles. Bring the family for this FREE holiday fete of music by the great John Coltrane, John Carter, Reggie Workman, Sonelious Smith, as well as exciting originals by these promising students at this world-class jazz program!

Reggie Workman NEW SCHOOL ANNUAL DUAL CONCERTS The NS Coltrane Ensemble (7pm) & The NS ...
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119

Performance / Tour