For Such a Time as This Eric Reed

• 1Paradox Peace01:04
• 2Western Rebellion04:19
• 3Thelonigus05:31
• 4Stella by Starlight03:51
• 5It's You or No One05:50
• 6Walltz06:45
• 7Bebophobia05:50
• 8Come Sunday02:52
• 9We Shall Overcome03:55
• 10Make Me Better05:26
• 11The Break08:17
• 12Hymn of Faith02:28
• Total Runtime56:08

Info for For Such a Time as This

For more than three decades, Eric Reed has been one of the most influential and beloved jazz musicians. He’s recorded close to 30 accomplished leader albums showcasing his virtuosic chops, intellectual clarity and unwavering will to swing. Most remarkable is his ability to refract and coalesce a wide range of musical, spiritual, and personal influences into a single stream of consciousness. This is perhaps the most personal of them all.

For Such a Time as This is a powerful and uplifting program framed by the realities of global pandemic anxiety, persistent racism and racial injustice, and an acrimonious, fraught Presidential election season. It was in Los Angeles in early 2020, when the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a city-wide shutdown, that Reed made the decision to record the album with local L.A. musicians. By the end of June, he was ready and had assembled a gifted, young quartet to record a set of recently penned originals, carefully chosen standard old chestnuts, and - as he has done regularly over the past 15 years - some restorative Gospel selections.

The group (drum virtuoso Kevin Kanner, Australia-born bassist Alex Boneham, tenor and soprano saxophonist Chris Lewis) nonetheless displays the chemistry of a long-established band. Reed’s original composition Make Me Better is sung by the soulful Henry Jackson, who “puts a fine point on everything I’m hoping and wishing for – that I will be made better by this experience, and that I will encourage other people to be better as well.”

“This record is the first I’ve done framed by this kind of specific circumstance,” Reed concludes. “But even though we had to do it with these pandemic restrictions, it seemed normal because we were in the recording studio, where there’s no audience anyway. It’s the circumstances surrounding the creativity that were so different. All of that had an impact on the music.” (Eric Reed)

Eric Reed, piano
Kevin Kanner, drums
Alex Boneham, bass
Chris Lewis, tenor and soprano saxophone

Eric Reed
is an influential fixture in music as pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and champion of young musicians. From his cultural roots in his father’s Baptist church in Philadelphia, to his West Coast tutelage under the likes of Teddy Edwards, Gerald Wilson, and Buddy Collette, through the bands of Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Buster Williams, and Wynton Marsalis, Eric has amassed a laudable discography of iconic recordings, an extensive repertoire of compositions and arrangements, and an impressive list of credits in film & TV scores, musical theater, and in prestigious venues the world over. Affectionately known as “Poppa Reed”, Eric encourages bourgeoning artists through complete access and endless conversations on becoming not only professional artists, but also individuals who can have a positive impact on humanity. His latest recording, Everybody Gets the Blues, moves Eric closer towards his goal of “wanting to connect on a deeper level to the human spirit and heart through the beauty of artistry.”

This album contains no booklet.