SAN­DRA L BLOOD

Mu­si­cian, com­pos­er, and ed­u­ca­tor Ron Reid has spent near­ly five decades weav­ing to­geth­er the threads of Caribbean mu­sic, jazz, and ed­u­ca­tion. From the ca­lyp­so tents of Port-of-Spain to the class­rooms of Berklee Col­lege of Mu­sic, Reid’s jour­ney is one of cul­tur­al am­bas­sador­ship, men­tor­ship, and a re­lent­less pas­sion for keep­ing Caribbean mu­sic alive on the world stage.

Born in Bel­mont, Reid at­tend­ed Bel­mont Boys’ RC, Tran­quil­i­ty Boys’ School, and Trin­i­ty Col­lege be­fore pur­su­ing high­er stud­ies abroad. He grad­u­at­ed from Berklee Col­lege of Mu­sic and Tufts Uni­ver­si­ty in Mass­a­chu­setts, lat­er re­turn­ing to Berklee as a pro­fes­sor in Con­tem­po­rary Writ­ing and Pro­duc­tion in 1996. For al­most 30 years, he has taught ar­rang­ing, en­sem­ble, steel­pan per­for­mance, and a lib­er­al arts elec­tive on the mu­sic of the Eng­lish-speak­ing Caribbean.

But Reid’s sto­ry as a mu­si­cian be­gan long be­fore his teach­ing ca­reer. Ini­tial­ly trained in pi­ano by Ovi­ta Creese and Mar­jorie Pad­more, he made his pro­fes­sion­al de­but in 1977 as bassist for the Ca­lyp­so Re­vue Tent. His tal­ent quick­ly made him a sought-af­ter col­lab­o­ra­tor.

Over the years, he has per­formed and record­ed with an ho­n­our roll of T&T’s finest: the Mighty Spar­row, Lord Su­pe­ri­or, Lord Melody, Re­la­tor, Mighty Shad­ow, Black Stal­in, Broth­er Valenti­no, Su­per Blue, Broth­er Re­sis­tance, Clive Zan­da, Mighty Ter­ror, David Rud­der, Len “Boogsie” Sharpe, and El­la An­dall. For many years, he an­chored the bass for An­dre Tanker and the Mau Mau Drum­mers and the Reper­to­ry Dance The­atre.

Reid’s cre­ative reach ex­tends be­yond the stage. As an ac­tor, he ap­peared in ear­ly Banyan Tele­vi­sion pro­duc­tions. As a com­pos­er, his mu­sic en­riched tele­vi­sion pro­grammes such as Gayelle, Who the Cap Fits, Mor­ral, Caribbean Eye, and The Rig. He al­so brought his tal­ents to the the­atre, serv­ing as mu­si­cal di­rec­tor for the Trinidad The­atre Work­shop’s pro­duc­tions of Derek Wal­cott’s Jok­er of Seville and Dream on Mon­key Moun­tain at Boston’s Hunt­ing­ton The­atre. He lat­er di­rect­ed the pre­mière of Steel for the Amer­i­can Reper­to­ry The­atre in Cam­bridge, MA.

His ver­sa­til­i­ty as a side­man has tak­en him to glob­al stages, per­form­ing or record­ing with jazz lu­mi­nar­ies and en­sem­bles in­clud­ing Randy We­st­on, Car­men Lundy, the Caribbean Jazz Project, Grace Kel­ly, An­to­nio Hart, Leno­ra Helm-Ham­monds, David Williams’ J’Ou­vert, Bill Harley, Sweet Hon­ey in the Rock, Gabrielle Good­man, Wal­ter Beasley, Theron Shaw, and Vaugh­nette Big­ford. His own record­ings in­clude Ca­lyp­sol­dier, Reid, Wright and Be Hap­py, and Pre­cious Met­als.

Equal­ly im­por­tant has been Reid’s role as a band­leader and men­tor. His Lib­er­ty Quin­tet, Pre­cious Met­als Project, and Sun­steel Quin­tet have ex­pand­ed the lan­guage of ca­lyp­so and steel­pan. In Boston, he in­tro­duced el­e­men­tary school stu­dents to ca­lyp­so his­to­ry through per­for­mance and ed­u­ca­tion. He has al­so led col­lab­o­ra­tive projects such as the Imag­ine Or­ches­tra and Carib­bo with Har­vey Wirht and Andy Narell. In 2019, he co-found­ed Carib Par­lor Notes in Brook­lyn, a se­ries fea­tur­ing in­ti­mate per­for­mances and con­ver­sa­tions with Caribbean artistes.

Recog­ni­tion for his con­tri­bu­tions has been steady. Reid re­ceived the Berklee Ur­ban Ser­vice Award in 2010, the Dis­tin­guished Hall of Fame Award from Trin­i­ty Col­lege in 2016, the Caribbean Foun­da­tion of Boston’s Mar­tin Luther King, Jr. Award in 2022, and the Sun­shine Award in New York in 2023 for his work in Caribbean mu­sic and ed­u­ca­tion.

Most re­cent­ly, he was ho­n­oured with the CAM­MY Award for ed­u­ca­tion, men­tor­ship, and per­for­mance at the Cam­bridge Jazz Fes­ti­val’s 10th an­niver­sary in Ju­ly.

In Au­gust, he per­formed at the Ur­ban Farm­ing In­sti­tute’s Jazz at the Farm fundrais­er, prov­ing that his pas­sion for live per­for­mance re­mains as strong as ever.

Now, as he winds down a 30-year teach­ing ca­reer, Reid is turn­ing his at­ten­tion back to the stage and stu­dio.

“I still teach part-time,” he said, “but I need to per­form and record mu­sic that has been on the shelf for some time. I have a quin­tet of young mu­si­cians, and their re­spect and en­thu­si­asm are quite en­cour­ag­ing.”

With his bass in hand, his pan at the ready, and his mind al­ways on the fu­ture of Caribbean mu­sic, Pro­fes­sor Ron Reid con­tin­ues to bridge cul­tures, gen­er­a­tions, and gen­res.

For more on Pro­fes­sor Reid’s work, vis­it ron­reid.com or fol­low him on In­sta­gram at @ronireid.