Biography
Jazz vocalist and life survivor Ed Reed grew up in Watts, CA during the 1930s and ’40s, where he absorbed several vocal techniques from jazz great Charles Mingus, who sometimes cared for his sister’s children in the residence directly opposite Reed’s home. He departed high school before earning a diploma and joined the U.S. Army. During his service a severe heroin addiction took hold, resulting in four separate terms at San Quentin and Folsom prisons; in one of those periods he performed with a jazz ensemble alongside fellow inmate Art Pepper. Outside of incarceration he performed at any available venue, working the local round of open mics. In 1985, after roughly four decades of heavy drug use, he completed a treatment program that ended his dependency. With the goal of assisting others he created a lecture series titled The Art of Living Well. February 2006 saw him cut his first album, Love Stories, at Bay Records in Berkeley, CA; he issued the recording on his independent label Blue Shorts Records.
Albums
