Vernon Reid - Solo Career

Solo Career

In addition to his work with Living Colour, Reid has been engaged in a number of other projects. He released Mistaken Identity, his first solo album, in 1996 and has collaborated with the choreographers Bill T. Jones on Still/Here and Donald Byrd on Jazztrain. He performed "Party 'Til The End of Time" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) with The Roots, an end of the 2000 millennium tribute featuring the music of Prince's album 1999. He also composed and performed "Bring Your Beats" a children's program for BAM.

Reid has also undertaken significant work as a record producer, including two Grammy-nominated albums: Papa (1999) by the African vocalist Salif Keita and Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions (2001) by guitarist James Blood Ulmer. Ulmer's subsequent albums, No Escape from the Blues: The Electric Lady Sessions (2003), Birthright (2005), and Bad Blood in the City: The Piety Street Sessions (2007), were also produced by Reid.

Reid also appears on "Guitar Oblique" (Knitting Factory Records) with guitarists David Torn and Elliott Sharp. Reid was also featured in the program presented by BAM and the Experience Music Project in Seattle entitled "Magic Science", which includes Medeski Martin & Wood and the Gil Evans Orchestra performing Gil Evans' arrangements of songs by Jimi Hendrix.

Reid composed the score for the film Paid In Full, directed by Charles Stone III (well known for creating the "Wasssup!" series of commercials for Budweiser as well as directing three videos for Living Colour) and released by Miramax in the fall of 2002. Reid also composed the score for the celebrated documentary "Ghosts of Attica" (directed by Brad Lichtenstein) which aired on Court TV in the fall of 2001 and has been featured at several film festivals. He composed the score for another documentary directed by Lichtenstein, "Almost Home," which aired in 2006 on the PBS series, Independent Lens.

Reid and DJ Logic, calling themselves "Yohimbe Brothers", released an album in September 2002 called Front End Lifter. The Yohimbe Brothers have been touring on and off since the release of the album. Reid was also the music supervisor for the film Mr. 3000 starring Bernie Mac and directed by Charles Stone III; the film was released in September 2004. Vernon's album with Masque (Leon Gruenbaum - keyboards & samchillian tip tip tip cheeepeeeee, Hank Schroy - bass and Marlon Browden - drums), an instrumental album entitled "Known Unknown", was released in April 2004, and On April 18, 2006 Vernon Reid and Masque released "Other True Self", both on Favored Nations records, owned by another guitarist, Steve Vai.

Reid has a prolific session output in a variety of contexts. He has played live or on record with The Roots, Eye & I, Mick Jagger, Ambitious Lovers, Rollins Band, Spearhead, Public Enemy, Mariah Carey, Tracy Chapman, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Don Byron, Defunkt, Santana, Bernie Worrell, MC 900 Ft. Jesus, B.B. King, Madeleine Peyroux, Meridiem, Jack Bruce, Terry Bozzio, Black Sugar Transmission (Vernon solos on the title track of 2009's USE IT e.p.) and DJ Spooky among many others.

Reid played at America’s Millennium Gala, New Year's Eve December 31, 1999, and January 1, 2000, at the Lincoln Memorial, performing "Fortunate Son" with John Fogerty. Among those in the audience were President and First Lady Clinton.

In March 2007, Reid played with Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and G. Calvin Weston at Tonic in NYC, and Tritone in Philadelphia, which led them to record as Free Form Funky Freqs with the title of the recording called Urban Mythology Volume 1. European Tour in November and a soon to be released CD.

In July 2008 Vernon Reid assembled a one-off solo band for his appearance at the G-TARanaki Guitar Festival in Taranaki, New Zealand, with keyboard player Jonathan Crayford, bassist Crete Haami and drummer Magesh Magesh. At the Puke Ariki "Midnight Session" concert, Vernon performed an all star jam with Uli Jon Roth, Gilby Clarke and Alex Skolnick.