Vernon Reid, lead guitarist for Living Colour and co-founder of the Black Rock Coalition, has consistently challenged narrow assumptions about the styles black musicians should pursue. His wide-ranging approach spans hard rock and punk through funk, R&B, and avant-garde jazz, while his unpredictable, rapid-fire solos have emerged as a signature element. Born in London, he moved with his family to Brooklyn during childhood and first picked up the guitar at fifteen, focusing initially on jazz and advancing at a swift pace. In 1980 he became a member of drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society, a forward-looking jazz ensemble that featured him on six albums; throughout the decade he also collaborated with an array of experimental artists, including Defunkt, Bill Frisell, John Zorn, Arto Lindsay, and Public Enemy.
Near the start of 1983 he assembled the earliest incarnation of what later became Living Colour. Two years afterward, alongside journalist Greg Tate, he established the Black Rock Coalition, an advocacy group aimed at expanding opportunities in the music industry for black performers unwilling to limit themselves to the roles of soul crooner or rapper. The band only coalesced once its roster stabilized in 1986, the same year Mick Jagger caught one of their sets at CBGB’s and asked them to contribute to his Primitive Cool album. Jagger took additional steps by producing a pair of demo recordings and aiding efforts to secure the group’s contract with Epic. Living Colour entered the scene in 1988 with Vivid, which drew widespread critical praise, and continued with Time’s Up in 1990 and Stain in 1993 before disbanding in 1995. Reid maintained a schedule of guest appearances on other projects and issued his first solo effort, Mistaken Identity, in 1996. He reemerged in 2002 as one half of the duo Yohimbe Brothers alongside DJ Logic; the pair released Front End Lifter that September and toured the United States the following month, then followed with The Tao Of Yo on Thirsty Ear in 2004.
Reid has stayed busy as both a session guitarist and a producer, most prominently on James Blood Ulmer’s projects beginning with Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions in 2001 and extending through No Escape From the Blues: The Electric Lady Sessions in 2003, Birthright in 2004, and Bad Blood in the City: The Piety Street Sessions in 2007. Also in 2007, Reid joined bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma and drummer Grant Calvin Weston for a performance marking the closure of New York’s Tonic venue. The successful evening led the trio to form the band Free Form Funky Freqs, whose debut album, Urban Mythology: Volume One, appeared on Thirsty Ear’s Blue Series in February 2008.
