Out Late Eric Scott Reed

• 1 Glow 03:43
• 2 All'umfrs 06:32
• 3 Shadoboxing 07:28
• 4 They 04:11
• 5 Out Late 04:46
• 6 The Weirdos 06:30
• 7 Delightful Daddy 06:14
• Total Runtime 39:24

Info zu Out Late

Master pianist Eric Scott Reed leads an invigorating top-shelf session, capturing the late-night vibrations of New York City on OUT LATE, featuring trumpeter Nicholas Payton, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, bassist Peter Washington, and drummer Joe Farnsworth.

Jazz musicians are nocturnal by nature. Almost as essential as time spent on the bandstand are the hours celebrated in the hang, where bonds are forged that inevitably feed back into the spirit and camaraderie of the music.

Those strong ties, lifelong relationships, and late night revelries are vibrantly illustrated on OUT LATE, the exhilarating and inventive new album from pianist and composer Eric Scott Reed. OUT LATE boasts a striking stellar quintet whose members share deep histories with one another as well as with the label’s namesake Manhattan club. The date features Reed with trumpeter Nicholas Payton, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, bassist Peter Washington, and drummer Joe Farnsworth.

“Every city has its own late night vibration,” says Reed. “No shade to Paris or Vegas or Philly or Los Angeles, but being in New York City is not like being anywhere else in the world. OUT LATE references the life of the musicians – the nightlife and the activity, the feeling and the energy of those NYC vibrations.”

Anyone who has followed Reed’s remarkable story in recent years will immediately catch the double meaning embedded in the title as well. Coinciding with the release of his revelatory 2023 Smoke Sessions album BLACK, BROWN, AND BLUE, Reed made the decision to exist openly in his sexuality, a decision that he feels has also led to a newfound openness and freedom in his musical life.

“OUT LATE, of course, is also a reference to finding myself much later in life,” he explains. “It’s about finally being able to embrace myself – my whole totality, my whole personage, who I am, who I love, why I do what I do, and how it's all intertwined.”

It’s a new beginning, certainly – flagged in part by the pianist’s decision to add his middle name to his professional sobriquet – but OUT LATE also brings Reed full circle. In assembling the quintet of modern masters for this session, he has called on some of his earliest acquaintances.

“These are some of the first musicians that I met when I got on the scene,” he says. “Peter Washington and I are both alumni of Westchester High School in Los Angeles. He graduated a few years ahead of me, but by the time I moved to New York City in 1989, he was on the scene, and I was excited about the possibility of playing with him. The very first gig I did in the city as a leader was at Bradley’s with Peter Washington on bass.”

Not long after, Farnsworth and Payton both came into the fold, followed eventually by Alexander. Across the board, the band featured on OUT LATE represents more than three decades of shared experiences and treasured memories. In recent years, the members had all played together in varying configurations for Smoke’s annual year-end Coltrane Festival, which sparked the idea in Reed’s mind to bring them together for an exploratory session.

Their rich shared history, the mastery of the individual musicians, and Reed’s newly reinvigorated self-confidence all commingled to inspire him to trust in a more spontaneous atmosphere for this date. “At this point in life, I'm just going with the flow,” Reed says.

“The entire vibration of this recording was exactly that: to just flow. I came in with some sketches of ideas, and we just let the music do what it needed to do. Then we just made ourselves present. When I call on musicians, I want them to bring everything they want to bring and make it truly a collaborative effort.”

That’s not to say that Reed went easy on his bandmates. “Eric’s compositions were very intricate and well planned out, and he gave them to us at a moment’s notice,” Alexander says. “Some of the tunes were in unusual keys or had strange forms that were challenging, but he wanted us to be challenged. I was really amazed at how good the takes sounded because Nicholas and I were on pins and needles to play those ensembles and find our way through those chord mazes.”

“I’ve always respected Eric’s compositions and his melodic sensibilities,” adds Payton. “The very quirky way he puts tunes together is unconventional.”

“I didn’t want these guys to have to read or learn a lot of music,” Reed details. “But I definitely wanted to challenge them. I was pleasantly surprised at the results. Not that I didn't think it would sound good – I knew these cats would sound good – but just in the way that it sounded so good. I was surprised that I could pull that out of myself, produce on a high level, and be satisfied with the result.”

“I’ve never done a session quite like that, but am I surprised?” posits Payton. “Not necessarily, given the top-shelf line-up. He assembled the right cats to do that job.”

The pianist points out that every track on OUT LATE is a first take – an insistence that prioritized feeling and passion over perfection. The album was recorded in vintage fashion, with the whole band together in one room, no headphones, no overdubbing.

“We recorded this album the way cats used to do back in the day,” he says. “We rehearsed a song for a few minutes, and once everybody got the melody under their fingers, we went ahead and made a track while it was fresh. The energy is there; the rawness is there. Coleman Hawkins said, ‘If you're not making any mistakes, you're not trying hard enough.’”

For this band of jazz greats, virtuosity is more about feeling than precision, though more often than not, they achieve both. OUT LATE evokes the lively and spontaneous vibe of those throwback record dates and the wee hours excursions on the NYC scene. At the same time, it’s the statement of a mature artist, more comfortable than ever in his own skin.

Eric Scott Reed, piano
Nicholas Payton, trumpet
Eric Alexander, tenor saxophone
Peter Washington, bass
Joe Farnsworth, drums

Eric Scott Reed
When you think of hard-driving swing, daring expression, sophistication and elegance in artistry, formidable technique and a thunderous sound, there are only a small handful of pianists you think of and one of them is most assuredly ERIC SCOTT REED.

Eric was born in the musically rich city of Philadelphia, PA. He grew up playing in his father's storefront Baptist church: "My father was a minister who sang with a Gospel group called the Bay State Singers; he was my earliest musical influence. I was also hit heavily by everything I heard on the radio - James Cleveland, Edwin & Walter Hawkins, Andraé Crouch, Donny Hathaway, Earth, Wind & Fire." Soon after, young Reed was bitten by the Jazz bug after hearing recordings by Art Blakey, Ramsey Lewis and Dave Brubeck.

A child prodigy born with a God-given gift, Eric started playing piano at the age of two and began private studies by the age of seven at Settlement Music School. However, he remained primarily self-taught, often confounding his instructors not by learning the written music, but listening to them play it first and memorizing musical pieces note-for- note: "I wasn't interested in practicing Bach; I was too busy digging Horace Silver!"

By age eleven, his family moved to Los Angeles and he continued his formal instruction at the Colburn School (formerly the Community School of Performing Arts) where his theory teacher, finally realizing that Eric was destined for swinging, turned him onto more recordings of great Jazz pianists. His research continued via records discovered at his neighborhood library.

Soon, the word was spreading about "this kid who is playing up a storm," and as a teenager he was already working with West Coast luminaries such as Buddy Collette, Teddy Edwards, Clora Bryant, Jeff & John Clayton. During his first year of matriculation at California State University at Northridge, he received a call from controversial trumpeter Wynton Marsalis to do a tour of the Midwest. Leaving college life behind, Eric began touring the world both as a leader and sideman, making serious waves in the music industry. He garnered great notice as a permanent member of Wynton Marsalis' ensembles (1990-95), making countless recordings and TV appearances with him. He also worked in the bands of Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson (1991-92) after which his résumé would flourish with names such as Wayne Shorter, Jessye Norman, Patti Labelle, Edwin Hawkins, Quincy Jones, Natalie Cole and numerous others. Eric has recorded over twenty chart-topping, critically-acclaimed, award-winning projects, supported by global performances to appreciative audiences. Such accomplishments and hard work have not gone unnoticed by legendary pianist Ahmad Jamal, who has called Eric "one of my very favorite pianists."

Beyond playing the piano, Reed expanded his scope to Hollywood, composing and arranging music for the Eddie Murphy comedy, Life, various other independent projects for Fantastic Four director and high-school chum Tim Story, plus commercials and TV spots. Annually, he serves as musical conductor for choreographer Alvin Ailey's classic Revelations with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, under the direction of Judith Jamison. An ardent educator, Eric served on the faculty of the prestigious Juilliard School of Music. He continues to perform worldwide master classes that cover the full spectrum of Jazz history and discography.

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet