Vernon Reid

London-born American guitarist, founder of Living Colour and a co-founder of the Black Rock Coalition, Vernon Reid has done a great deal to undermine stereotypical expectations of what kinds of music black artists ought to play; his rampant eclecticism encompasses everything from hard rock and punk to funk, R&B and avant-garde jazz, and his anarchic, lightning-fast solos have become a hallmark. In 1980, he joined Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society, and over the course of the decade, Reid went on to work with a wide variety of experimental musicians including Defunkt, Bill Frisell, John Zorn, Arto Lindsay, and Public Enemy. He has continued with extended collaborations as a producer and performer with James “Blood” Ulmer’s Memphis Blood, with DJ Logic in Yohimbe Brothers, the collaborative Burnt Sugar Arkestra, and the Tony Williams Tribute band “Spectrum Road” with Jack Bruce, John Medeskiand Cindy Blackman-Santana. His latest project “The Zig Zag Power Trio” features Will Calhoun and Melvin Gibbs. Vernon has also composed for noted film-makers Charles Stone 3rd, Shola Lynch, Gabri Christa, Brad Lichtenstein, Kasi Lemmons, Laurence Fishburn, & Thomas Allan Harris.