[ Vernon ]
Reid.
“Voodoo Pimp Stroll”
Vernon Reid & Masque
Known Unknown
2004 —
((( song )))
The Idea of Living Colour
Vernon Reid put the first Living Colour configuration together in 1983, and after a number of trial and error attempts, in 1985 he met Corey Glover at a mutual friend’s birthday party, and Living Colour’s history was about to begin.
• LIVING COLOUR
• Vernon Cont’d
1980 — DOWNTOWN NYC
Ronald Shannon Jackson and The Decoding Society
1980 — Eye On You
1981 — Nasty
1982 — Thermonuclear Sweat (w/Defunkt)
1982 — Mandance (Antilles)
1982 — On Defunkt’s Thermonuclear Sweat, Vernon was more rhythm, melodic, and beat driven … a sort of Funk-infused, Hard Rock sound, reminiscent of EDDIE HAZEL and early (70s) FUNKADELIC.
1983 — Barbeque Dog (Antilles)
1983 — Live at The Montreux Jazz Festival (Knit Classics)
1983 — Street Priest
1984 — Smash & Scatteration (w/Bill Frisell)
1985 — Decode Yourself (Island)
“Cp Time”
Vernon Reid
Mistaken Identity
2004 —
((( song )))
— dave.
Vernon Reid‘s musical career started in Downtown New York City’s darker, Lower East Side. The Bowery, CBGB …
He started with Ronald Shannon Jackson & The Decoding Society, the young guitarist in the drummer’s band. Vernon was in a space where, in the early 1980s, the more open-minded, free-thinking, improvisational musicians were creating a sound they called “FREE JAZZ.”
Movement elders included: RONALD SHANNON JACKSON, JAMES “BLOOD” ULMER (w/Vernon), CECIL TAYLOR, PHAROAH SANDERS, and ORNETTE COLEMAN (w/Will)
For Vernon, it was a fine education, and fortunately for all who appreciate Living Colour, one of his best lessons was meeting DEFUNKT in a small basement club called THE KNITTING FACTORY.
A band at home [DOWNTOWN], but a band whose sound was more accessible, more musical, LESS FREE?
Some called it “AVANT-FUNK,” and it was a sound that more accurately represented where Vernon’s sonic journey was headed.
1985 — BLACK ROCK COALITION
1986 —
1987 —
First, playing clubs in the city’s five boroughs (Beastie Boys), and Manhattan,
notably at CBGB. Downtown, in the Bowery, also home of
Patti Smith, Television, Talking Heads, The Ramones …
1988 — Vivid
1989 — Rolling Stones “Steel Wheels” North American Tour
1989 — Saturday Night Live
1990 — Time’s Up
1991 — Lollapalooza Festival (Inaugural)
1991 — Eye & i (w/Melvin Gibbs, DK Dyson, Bernie Worrell)
1992 —
1993 — Stain
“Crosstown Traffic” (Stone Free: Tribute to Jimi Hendrix)
1994 — No Dread (Live Recordings from 1993 World Tour)
“Sunsine Of Your Love” (True Lies) w/ Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton
1995 — Pride (New/Old)
“Who Are You Today?”
Vernon Reid
Mistaken Identity
1996 — Prince Glam Slam (Miami Beach)
((( song )))
— yZ.
solo
1996 — Mistaken Identity (Solo)
1997 — Naked Launch (Hubble Telescope)
1998 — GTR OBLQ (Guitar Oblique)
w/Elliott Sharp and David Torn
1999 — Prince’s Purple Party
2000 — Living Colour Reunion @ CBGB (Y2K)
2001 — Living Colour Reunion Tour
“Terrorism” ((( video )))
911 — Beginning Of The End
POST APOCALYPTIC RESURRECTION
— video by Larry Blumenstein Video Productions
2002 — Yohimbe Brothers
Yohimbe Brothers
@ The Bowery Ballroom
New York City (2002)
After the dissolution of Living Colour (1994), Vernon’s solo material was often described as “avant,” a return to the New York City Underground, where his career started in the early 1980s.
Although reminiscent of his beginning with Ronald Shannon Jackson and The Decoding Society, the addition of 21st Century mixer Dj Logic, Vernon left no doubt that as always, he was looking toward the future.
2003 — CollideOscope
2004 —
2005 —
2006 —
2007 — Wimbash / Brazil
2008 —
2009 — Chair In The Doorway
2010 —
2011 —
2012 — Spectrum Road. w/
2013 — VIVID 25th ANNIVERSARY
2014 —
2015 — “Who Shot Ya?” Violent Summer In The City
2016 — Get On The Boat (Rock N Roll Cruise Ship Elders)
2017 — SHADE
2018 — “Machine Gun” b/ Band of Gypsys (Re-Visited)
2019 — Covid Goes Viral
Blues Cruise out of New Orleans followed (without a break) by a Rock N Roll Carribean Cruise that left Fort Lauderdale, the week we learned of the presence of COVID-19.
2020 — VIRUS, VACCINE, AND WAR
Give The Drummer Some w/ Cindy Blackman, Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin, Kirk Hammett
2021 — Hope Springs Temporarily / Summerland Tour
2022 — Interrupted Again (Second Apocalypse)
2023 —
VERNON REID
In The Past
w/ …
Mick Jagger
Jack Bruce
David Torn
Elliott Sharp
Prince
B.B. King
Bernie Worrell
Terry Bozzio
Carlos Santana
Public Enemy
Rollins Band
Janet Jackson
Mariah Carey
Tracy Chapman
Don Byron
Roy Hargrove
DJ Spooky
The Roots
Eye & I
Ambitious Lovers
Spearhead
Black Sugar Transmission
(Reid solos on the title track of 2009’s USE IT EP)
MC 900 Ft. Jesus
Madeleine Peyroux
Meridiem
Lenny White (Bitches Brew 50 Anniversary Project)
— Living Colour w/ The Last Poets
“TONGUES ON FIRE”
BLACK PANTHERS TRIBUTE
Paris, France (2/6/10)
written b/ David Murray
art b/ Emory Douglas
musical interpretation b/ Living Colour
Living Colour
• Vernon Reid (guitar)
• Corey Glover (vocals)
• Will Calhoun (drums)
• Doug Wimbish (bass guitar)