Quick Facts
GeminiBiography
Mike Reed (born May 26, 1974) is an American jazz drummer, bandleader, composer and music presenter.
Career
Reed was born in Bielefeld, Germany, in 1974, but raised in Evanston, Illinois north of Chicago. He returned to Chicago in the 1990s after majoring in English and psychology at the University of Dayton in Ohio. He played with David Boykin Expanse, Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra, and the Josh Berman Quartet. He led the quintet Loose Assembly and the quartet People, Places & Things, with whom he recorded several albums on the 482 Music label.
In 2000 he and cornetist Josh Berman started the Sunday Transmission music series at the Hungry Brain bar in Chicago in 2000. He helped start Downtown Sound music series, a free weekly concert program in Millennium Park that has included indie rock, world music, and contemporary soul. He is a founding director of the Pitchfork Music Festival and joined the committee that programs the annual Chicago Jazz Festival. Since 2013 he has been the owner and director of the performing arts venue "Constellation", and in 2016 he bought and reopened the Hungry Brain bar which had closed in 2014. He is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in Chicago and served as vice-chair between 2009 and 2011.
In 2009, while on their European tour, band members were caught in a Neo-Nazi rally in the Czech Republic. The band consisted of four Americans, two of them African-American. This caused their lives to be in danger. The police found the band members and provided them with a safe house and passage to Kraków, Poland.
Discography
As leader/co-leader
| Release year | Title | Label | Personnel/Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | In the Context of | 482 Music | Duets with Jeff Parker (guitar), Nicole Mitchell (flute), Jim Baker (piano) |
| 2007 | Last Year's Ghost | 482 Music | Loose Assembly with Josh Abrams (bass), Jason Adasiewicz (vibes), Tomeka Reid (cello), Greg Ward (alto saxophoneophone) |
| 2008 | Proliferation | 482 Music | People, Places & Things with Greg Ward (alto saxophone), Tim Haldeman (tenor saxophone), Jason Roebke (bass) |
| 2008 | The Speed of Change | 482 Music | Loose Assembly with Nicole Mitchell (flute), Josh Abrams (bass), Jason Adasiewicz (vibes), Tomeka Reid (cello), Greg Ward (alto saxophoneophone) |
| 2009 | About Us | 482 Music | People, Places & Things with Greg Ward (alto saxophone), Tim Haldeman (tenor saxophone), Jason Roebke (bass), David Boykin (tenor saxophoneophone), Jeb Bishop (trombone), Jeff Parker (guitar) |
| 2010 | Stories and Negotiations | 482 Music | People, Places & Things with Greg Ward (alto saxophone), Tim Haldeman (tenor saxophone), Jason Roebke (bass), Art Hoyle (trumpet, flugehorn), Ira Sullivan (tenor saxophone), Julian Priester, Jeb Bishop (trombone) |
| 2010 | Empathetic Parts | 482 Music | Loose Assembly with Josh Abrams (bass), Jason Adasiewicz (vibes), Tomeka Reid (cello), Greg Ward (alto saxophone), Roscoe Mitchell (alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute) |
| 2011 | It Only Happened at Night | 482 Music | My Silence with Jason Stein (bass clarinet), Nick Butcher (electronics, turntable, guitar, keyboards) |
| 2012 | Clean on the Corner | 482 Music | People, Places & Things with Greg Ward (alto saxophone), Tim Haldeman (tenor saxophone), Jason Roebke (bass), Craig Taborn (piano), Josh Berman (cornet) |
| 2012 | New Myth/Old Science | Cuneiform | Living by Lanterns co-led with Reed and Jason Adasiewicz |
| 2013 | Second Cities Volume 1 | 482 Music | People, Places & Things with Greg Ward (alto saxophone), Tim Haldeman (tenor saxophone), Jason Roebke (bass), Ab Baars (tenor saxophone and clarinet), Eric Boeren (cornet), Joost Buis (trombone), Guus Janssen, Oscar Jan Hoogland (piano), Michael Moore (alto and clarinet), Felicity Provan (trumpet) |
| 2014 | In Pursuit of Magic | 482 Music | Duo with Roscoe Mitchell (reeds) |
| 2015 | Artifacts | 482 Music | Artifacts with Nicole Mitchell (flute, electronics), Tomeka Reid ((cello) |
| 2015 | A New Kind of Dance | 482 Music | People, Places & Things with Greg Ward (alto saxophone), Tim Haldeman (tenor saxophone), Jason Roebke (bass), Marquis Hill (trumpet), Matthew Shipp (piano) |
| 2017 | Flesh & Bone | 482 Music | People, Places & Things Greg Ward (alto saxophoneophone), Tim Haldeman (tenor saxophoneophone), Jason Roebke (bass), Mike Reed (drums) with Ben Lamar Gay (cornet), Jason Stein (clarinet), Marvin Tate (words) |
As sideman
| Release year | Leader | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Jason Adasiewicz | Sun Rooms | Delmark |
| 2011 | Jason Adasiewicz | Spacer | Delmark |
| 2014 | Jason Adasiewicz | From the Region | Delmark |
| 2008 | Bill Dixon | Bill Dixon with Exploding Star Orchestra | Thrill Jockey |
| 2007 | Rob Mazurek (Exploding Star Orchestra) | We Are All from Somewhere Else | Thrill Jockey |
| 2010 | Rob Mazurek (Exploding Star Orchestra) | Stars Have Shapes | Delmark |
| 2010 | Rob Mazurek (Exploding Star Orchestra) | Matter Anti-Matter | RogueArt |
| 2014 | Jason Roebke | High Red Center | Delmark |