Jazz breaking news: Cult Drummer Steve Reid Dies Aged 66
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Only last November the cult drummer Steve Reid, who has died of cancer aged 66, was playing to a rapt audience at London’s Jazz Café.
In the audience you could spot a bunch of London musicians, including Polar Bear’s Seb Rochford, hanging on every drum beat, every touch of the cymbal.
Reid had captured the attention of a new generation of musicians and fans, partly though his work with electronica whiz Kieran Hebden and his startling Domino Records release Daxaar recorded in Africa. Reid, though, went way back and had worked in Africa long before it became a fashionable destination for a recording session, even playing there with Fela Kuti. In the 60s he worked on Motown sessions and at the Apollo theatre in New York before becoming a part of the loft scene in the 70s, starting his own label Mustevic many of whose releases are collectors’ items prized for their music and their artwork.
Reid had a loose, infectious style. He often worked with percussionists and liked to play behind long aching organ lines. Last year Soul Jazz reissued his out-there classic Odyssey of the Oblong Square and a new release In The Rhythms recorded live at Joe’s Pub in New York is still to be released. With a fine version of Paolo Conte’s ‘Sparring Partner’ on it and a flavour of what Reid could do live it is a fitting reminder of what a great talent Steve Reid was, crossing musical boundaries as if they didn’t exist.
– Stephen Graham