Ed Reed sings Love Stories

[GA Russell]

Ed Reed is a 78-year old who has a regular Tuesday night gig at the Cheese Board Pizza Collective in Berkeley, CA. With the encouragement of Tootie Heath and Sheila Jordan, he founded a record label for himself (called Blue Shorts) and has recorded an album of ballads called Ed Reed sings Love Stories.

There are 11 songs totalling 63 minutes. The songs include Sleepin' Bee, Bye Bye Blackbird, Daydream, Goodbye, Motherless Child and even Ask Me Now.

Even though he is well past retirement age, his voice is still in great shape. I hear a lot of guys on the jazz radio stations here who don't sing as well as Reed does.

Reed is backed on the album by Gary Fisher on piano, John Witala on bass and Eddie Marshall on drums. I assume but can't say for sure that this is the same Eddie Marshall who played with The Fourth Way with Mike Nock, Ron McClure and Michael White. Peck Almond often augments the rhythm section with a variety of wind instruments, most notably the flute.

Reed has led an interesting, if often sordid, life. He grew up in Los Angeles. When he was a little boy, his father was a waiter for the Southern Pacific Railroad and active in the union. A. Philip Randolph often came to the house to discuss union politics with his dad.

Later he lived across the street from the sister of Charles Mingus. At age 11 he received his first music lesson from the then-teenaged Mingus!

As an adult Reed was a heroin addict for forty years, and spent the years 1951-1966 in prison. While at San Quentin, he was the vocalist for the Warden's Band, whose saxophone player was Art Pepper!

We've mentioned more than once here, most notably on the Plays For Lovers thread, that I like ballads albums. So I may be a bit predisposed to liking this album because it is an hour of beautiful songs. But even so, I feel that this is an album that deserves plenty of radio airplay.

The CD is available from CDBaby.

4 stars