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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZWORKMAN, Reggie(b 26 June 1937, Philadelphia) Bassist, composer, leader. He studied various instruments, took up bass to play with R&B groups as a teenager. A partial list of those he recorded with: Sonny Stitt, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Wayne Shorter, Booker Ervin and Lee Morgan in the '60s; Max Roach, Archie Shepp and Art Farmer in the '70s, Mal Waldron and David Murray in the '80s. Equally at home in post-bop and in 'free' music, he was also active in music education from the '70s. His own first recordings as a leader were on Denon in the '70s with septet Conversations including George Adams and Al Dailey, and solo The Works Of Workman, released without his knowledge or approval. Workman was sensationally good on projects for arranger/producer Heiner Stadler in the 1970s, c.f. 'Love In The Middle Of The Air', a 20-minute duo with vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, and throughout Stadler's tour de force album Tribute to Bird & Monk. A co-op project called Great Friends was put together with Workman, Stanley Cowell, Billy Hart and Billy Harper (tenor sax, b 17 January 1943, Houston TX); Harper had worked with Gil Evans (for whom he wrote 'Priestess' and other tunes), Art Blakey and many others. They made an album '83 but couldn't get anyone to release it; an album made on tour '86 was released by Black and Blue in France and the first album finally came out on Strata East in Japan. Other Workman albums from the '80s which have remained obscure were Black Swan Quartet, Trio Transition and Trio Transition With Oliver Lake; despite the limited aesthetic of the record business in general, he became established as an important leader: the Reggie Workman Ensemble's Synthesis '86 included Marilyn Crispell, Oliver Lake and Andrew Cyrille; then he played on four Crispell trio sets: the superb Gaia '87, Live In Zurich '89, Circles '91 (all on Leo) and On Tour '92 on Music and Arts; while she also played on his Images '90 on Music and Arts, with Don Byron, Gerry Hemingway, Jeanne Lee and Michell Navazio. Workman's astonishingly successful surprise supergroup Summit Conference on Postcard '94 featured Andrew Hill, Sam Rivers, Julian Priester and Pheeroan akLaff, followed by Cerebral Caverns '95, with Geri Allen, Hemingway, Priester, Rivers and three others. In '95 he was leading Trio Three, with Cyrille and Lake. |