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Steve Reid
Biography
Drummer, bandleader, and composer Steve Reid was born on January 29, 1944, in the South Bronx in New York. He became interested in the drums when he heard Art Blakey playing a dance in his neighborhood. The next day, Reid procured a set of drums via a friend of his mother's and began playing. At the age of 16, Reid was already playing drums in the house band at the legendary Apollo in Harlem, under the direction of Quincy Jones. It was during his tenure there that Martha Reeves & the Vandellas came to perform at the theater, heard him play, and drafted him pretty much on the spot. Within days, Reid was behind the kit for the recording session that produced the hit "Dancing in the Street" for Motown.

While Reid was in high school, his family moved to Queens, where he discovered that he lived a mere three blocks from one of his most important mentors: John Coltrane. Reid would begin his trip to school by visiting the Coltranes every day at 7:30 a.m. and soaking up everything Coltrane had to say. One of Coltrane's dreams was to play and record in Africa, though he never made it. Reid, however, left the United States for that continent immediately upon graduation from college -- Adelphi University -- and stayed three years.
Selected Discography