"I'm a Shy Guy,"
4th CD by Jazz Vocalist Ed Reed,
Is a Tribute to the King Cole Trio,
Due for Oct. 1 Release
4th CD by Jazz Vocalist Ed Reed,
Is a Tribute to the King Cole Trio,
Due for Oct. 1 Release
Reed's Band Features Pianist Randy Porter,
Guitarist Jamie Fox, Tenor Saxophonist Anton Schwartz,
Bassist John Wiitala, & Drummer Akira Tana
Guitarist Jamie Fox, Tenor Saxophonist Anton Schwartz,
Bassist John Wiitala, & Drummer Akira Tana
CD Release Show at Yoshi's Oakland, Nov. 4
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 Ed got settled
in on that first day in the studio, the 'first takes' started coming one
after the other," says vocalist and educator Laurie Antonioli,
who co-produced the date with Ed and his wife, Diane Reed. "He'd do a
song and my comment was: "That's as good as I can imagine the song
sounding. Let's move on while you're on a roll!' And so he did. The end
result is a recording that is completely fluid and swinging."
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 "Baby, Baby All the Time," "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby," "Meet Me at No Special Place," "'Tis Autumn," and "This Will Make You Laugh."
"I revisited over 200
tunes recorded by the Trio," says Reed, now 84, "and it was difficult
trying to narrow them down to just a few."
Empathetic support is supplied by Reed's longtime accompanists of choice: pianist Randy Porter, guitarist Jamie Fox, bassist John Wiitala, drummer Akira Tana, and tenor saxophonist Anton Schwartz.
As a teenager in Los
Angeles, Reed was an ardent fan of the King Cole Trio and had the
opportunity to see them perform at his school, Jordan High in Watts. "I
wanted to be just like him," Ed recalls. But after the concert, "seeing
Nat in person, I was filled with such awe that when he spoke to me and
held out his hand, I was too shy to even say hello, and I couldn't even
shake his hand."
Reed's path to his
current profession as a jazz vocalist was circuitous, even torturous. A
40-year heroin addiction undermined attempts to launch a singing career.
He was in and out of prison during much of the 1950s and '60s, yet
managed to continue singing. During his last of his three stretches at
San Quentin, he performed with the Warden's Band, a 17-piece jazz
orchestra that also included saxophonist Art Pepper.
He got into recovery
from alcohol and other drugs in 1986, and by the early '90s had started
singing again in public. In 2005 he attended JazzCamp West, where
instructor Peck Allmond heard student Reed at a fireside jam session.
The singer made such a strong impression on Allmond that the
multi-instrumentalist, along with drummer Bud Spangler, ended up
producing Ed Reed Sings Love Stories in 2007.
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 has also regularly placed in the "Rising Star Male Vocalist" category of the DownBeat Critics Poll since 2008.
His 2011 release, Born to Be Blue, was praised for "possess[ing] all the distilled emotion and narrative coherence of a jazz masterpiece" (Andrew Gilbert, San Jose Mercury News). In a DownBeat
Editors' Pick review of the disc, Frank Alkyer wrote: "When Ed Reed
sings, don't expect scat -- instead look for an intimate story every
time."
Ed Reed's CD release show for I'm a Shy Guy will take place 11/4 at Yoshi's Oakland, with members of the recording band. Reed will also be appearing 10/6 at Jazz at Peace, Peace Lutheran Church in Danville (5-7pm) and 2/7 at Piedmont Piano Co. in Oakland. He'll be interviewed by Alisa Clancy on KCSM.org 10/30 at 9am.
Photography: Irene Young
Media Contact:Terri Hinte
510-234-8781
hudba@sbcglobal.net
www.terrihinte.com
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