Tomeka Reid

Tomeka Reid (born 1977) is an American jazz cellist and composer.

Reid grew up in Washington, D.C. and attended University of Maryland, College Park, earning a Bachelor of Music. Her schooling continued at DePaul University where she received a Master of Music. Reid taught middle and high school orchestra at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools for seven years before beginning her Doctor of Music from University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

Performance ensembles

Reid is associated and has performed with a number of groups, including The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Dee Alexander, Mike Reed's Loose Assembly, Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble, and the Great Black Music Ensemble of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Reid also has led, co-led, and composed for the Tomeka Reid Quartet with de:Jason Roebke, de:Tomas Fujiwara and Mary Halvorson; Artifacts trio with Reed and Mitchell; and Hear in Now with Mazz Swift and it:Silvia Bolognesi.

Administration, honors, and teaching

From 2009-2010 Reid was Secretary of AACM. From 2015 through at least 2019, Reid has run the annual Chicago Jazz String Summit concert festival, even after having herself moved from Chicago to New York City.

Reid was awarded a 2012-2013 residency at the University of Chicago's Washington Park Arts Incubator (which was started by Theaster Gates). She continues to teach cello, as of 2019. In June 2020, the New York Times consulted Tomeka Reid, along with artists including Yo-Yo Ma, John Williams, and others, to offer suggestions for cello recordings that could make newcomers to the instrument fall in love with its sounds; Reid recommended a composition by Abdul Wadud.

As leader

• Hairy Who & the Chicago Imagists (Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2014)
• Tomeka Reid Quartet (Thirsty Ear, 2015)
• Old New (Cuneiform Records, 2019)

As co-leader

Artifacts trio, with Nicole Mitchell and Mike Reed

• Artifacts (482 Music, 2015)

Hear In Now, with Mazz Swift and it:Silvia Bolognesi

• Hear in Now (Rudi Records, 2013)
• Not Living In Fear (International Anthem Recording Company, 2017)

with others

• de:Christoph Erb and de:Keefe Jackson, as The Urge Trio Live In Toledo (Veto Records, 2013)
• Christoph Erb and Keefe Jackson, as The Urge Trio Live At the Hungry Brain (Veto Records, 2017)
• Denis Fournier, Nicole Mitchell, Hanah Jon Taylor, and de:Bernard Santacruz, as Watershed Watershed (de:RogueArt, 2012)
• Alexander Hawkins, Shards and Constellations (Intakt Records, 2020)
• Kyoko Kitamura, Taylor Ho Bynum, Joe Morris Geometry of Distance (Relative Pitch, 2019)
• Fillipo Monico, The Mouser (Relative Pitch, 2019)
• de:Nick Mazzarella, Signaling (Nessa Records, 2017)
• Joe McPhee, et alia, Of Things Beyond Thule Vol. 1 (Aerophonic, 2020)
• Dave Rempis, Ithra (Aerophonic, 2018)
• fr:Claudia Solal, Katherine Young, and Benoît Delbecq Antichamber Music (The Bridge Sessions, 2019)

As guest

with Anthony Braxton

• Trillium E (New Braxton House 2011)
• 10+1tet (Knoxville) (Braxton Bootleg, 2016)
• Anthony Braxton's Language Music (Sound American, 2016)

with Taylor Ho Bynum

• Enter the Plustet (Firehouse 12, 2016)
• Geometry of Caves (Relative Pitch, 2018)
• The Ambiguity Manifesto (Firehouse 12, 2019)

with Nicole Mitchell

• Afrika Rising (Dreamtime, 2002)
• Hope, Future and Destiny (Dreamtime, 2004)
• Black Unstoppable (Delmark, 2007)
• Renegades (Delmark, 2008)
• Xenogenesis Suite (Firehouse 12, 2008)
• Intergalactic Beings (FPE, 2014)
• Liberation Narratives (Black Earth Music, 2017)
• Mandorla Awakening II (FPE, 2017)
• Maroon Cloud (FPE, 2018)

with Mike Reed

• Last Year's Ghost (482 Music, 2007)
• The Speed of Change (482 Music, 2008)
• Empathetic Parts (482 Music, 2010)

with others

• The AACM Great Black Music Ensemble, At Umbria Jazz 2009 (Musica Jazz, 2010)
• Joshua Abrams, Represencing (Eremite, 2012)
• Jason Adasiewicz and Mike Reed, as Living By Lanterns, New Myth / Old Science (Cuneiform, 2012)
• All City Affairs (Peter Andreadis), Bees (Lujo, 2006)
• de:Jason Ajemian, From Beyond (Sundmagi, 2006)
• Dee Alexander, Sketches of Light (EGEA, 2012)
• Art Ensemble of Chicago, We Are On the Edge (Pi, 2019)
• Baby Teeth, The Simp (Lujo, 2007)
• Birthmark, Antibodies (Polyvinyl, 2012)
• Silvia Bolognesi, Chicago Sessions (Fonterossa Records, 2015)
• Jaimie Branch, Fly or Die (International Anthem, 2017)
• Jaimie Branch, Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise (International Anthem, 2019)
• Bronze, Calypso Shakedown (Unsound Records, 2009)
• Dave Douglas, Engage (Greenleaf, 2019)
• James Elkington, Wintres Woma (Paradise Of Bachelors, 2017)
• de:Tomas Fujiwara, 7 Poets Trio (RogueArt, 2019)
• Theaster Gates, One (IHME, 2017)
• Hecuba, Paradise (Manimal Vinyl, 2009)
• HiM, Peoples (After Hours, 2005)
• Devin Hoff, The Lost Songs Of Lemuria (self-released, 2013)
• Luz, Polemonta (Auand, 2014)
• Rob Mazurek, Christophe Rocher, et alia, as Third Coast Ensemble, Wrecks (RogueArt, 2017)
• Makaya McCraven, Universal Beings (International Anthem, 2018)
• Dave McDonnell Group, The Time Inside a Year (Delmark, 2015)
• Roscoe Mitchell and Nicole Mitchell, Three Compositions (RogueArt, 2012)
• Roscoe Mitchell, Celebrating Fred Anderson (Nessa, 2015)
• The National Trust (band) Kings & Queens (Thrill Jockey, 2006)
• OHMME, Parts (Joyful Noise, 2018)
• Owen, Ghost Town (Polyvinyl, 2011)
• Owen, L'Ami Du Peuple (Polyvinyl, 2013)
• de:Junius Paul, Ism (International Anthem, 2019)
• Dave Rempis, Nettles (Aerophonic, 2016)
• Kristo Rodzevski, Bitter Almonds (Much Prefer Records, 2017)
• Guillermo Scott Herren, as Savath & Savalas, Golden Pollen (Anti-, 2007)
• Ken Vandermark, et alia, as The Margots, Pescado (Okka Disk, 2013)
• Glenn Wilson and Jim Pugh, as TromBari, The Devil's Hopyard (Jazzmaniac, 2012)