Ravinia 2024 Issue 1

got a chance to play with many of them,” the bassist said. “If you were bass player, and you could read [music] and swing, you worked.” He went on to play at clubs across the city, including a regular gig at the Pumpkin Room on the South Side and the still-extant Jazz Showcase, where he served as a “house bass player.” He also went on the road with Eddie Harris and is featured on several 1970s recordings with the noted Chicago tenor saxophon- ist who later moved to Los Angeles. “In a sense, my jazz school was at the Jazz Showcase, because there was no jazz in schools at that time,” he said. “Chicago was very important to me, because it linked me to the rest of the world.” Despite all his success in Chicago, Reid nonetheless couldn’t resist the lure of New York City, which, as it was then, is still the jazz capital of the United States. Helping to fuel his desire to move were his opportunities to per- form with a top-level visiting quintet that was fronted by vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson and included saxophonist Harold Lamb. Impressed with the young bassist, the group invited him to take part in a European tour. “It was shortly after I graduated [in 1971], so it was a great graduation gift,” Reid said. “It was actually my first time going to Europe and going to these jazz festivals. It was unbelievable. I didn’t even know those things existed at the time.” Hutcherson returned to Chicago some time later for a group of weekend performances, and Reid struggled to re- prise the intensity he had shown on that tour, and the veteran jazzman noticed. “He said, ‘What’s wrong? Your stuff is not happening,’ ” Reid recalled. “Boy, that hurt real bad.” That lapse plus a local economic downturn made him realize that he needed a change. He went home that night and told his wife that they were moving to New York. It took him a few years to save enough money and make the necessary preparations, and they relocated to Teaneck, NJ, in 1976. Teaching has been a part of Reid’s career almost from the very beginning. Jamey Aebersold, an internationally known jazz educator heard Reid play with Eddie Harris and invited the bassist to take part in his renowned jazz work- shops. His first such educational outing was in North Dakota, where he encoun- tered eager young players with talent but little basic knowledge. So, he ended up creating little exercises for them and telling them to buy a book produced by his “hero,” Ray Brown’s Bass Method . He was later riding in a car with Har- ris and told him about the experience, especially his helping to sell multiple copies of Brown’s book. Hearing the envy in Reid’s voice, the elder jazzman asked him why he didn’t write his own method book. The bassist took up the challenge and did just that, producing what became known as The Evolving Bassist in 1974. He has regularly updated it since. At a peak in the 1980s and ’90s, Reid sold 3,000–4,000 copies a year, and sales still reach some 500 copies annually. “It’s still out there,” he said. “It’s just really functional information. You can put it into any idiom that you want. A chord is a chord.” After he moved to New York, he played with famed trumpeter Thad Jones, who was an artist-in-residence at William Paterson University. Jones invited Reid to accompany him to the school for some masterclasses on the jazz rhythm section. Then in 1978, Jones moved to Europe with little notice, and Reid got a panicked call from the university wondering if he could fill in. A year later, he co-founded the school’s jazz studies and performance program, which was designed to be a conduit for students to New York’s professional scene, and served as its first director. “I said, ‘Well, okay, I’ll be there for a couple of years. I ended up being there 20 years,” Reid said. Although Reid is stepping away from his yearly commitment to the Steans Institute, he is in no way giving up per- forming or teaching. In 2015, he received a Grammy nomination for Best Instru- mental Composition, and he wants to boost his focus on such projects. “I’m writing a lot more,” he said, “and I want more time to devote to that.” Kyle MacMillan served as classical music critic for the Denver Post from 2000 through 2011. He currently freelances in Chicago, writing for such publications as the Chicago Sun-Times , Early Music America , Opera News , and Classical Voice of North America . Last summer, Reid and the other Steans Jazz Artistic Directors returned in September for a special-feature performance of music from their catalogues, joined by violinist Sara Caswell, an alum of the inaugural Steans Jazz Program in 2000, where Reid was a founding faculty member. RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 91