Ed Reed's Stories of Regret and Recovery

By NAT HENTOFF      June 16, 2009

Having written about jazz musicians' lives for some 60 years, I have witnessed the determined self-extrication of a number of eventual icons from the quicksand of drug addiction. But the most singular odyssey of a once-lost soul is that of vocalist Ed Reed, who at age 78, in 2007, made his very first recording, "Ed Reed Sings Love Stories" (Blue Shorts), which he released himself and is available at edreedsings.com, Amazon.com and CD Baby.

Hearing him on Victor Young's "Ghost of a Chance," the Ellington-Strayhorn "Day Dream," and Gordon Jenkins's "Goodbye" underscored how much I have missed, for years, the enveloping sensuous balladry of Duke Ellington's Herb Jeffries and the conversational intimacy of Johnny Hartman in his sessions with John Coltrane.

Mr. Reed's "hypnotic baritone," as Christopher Loudon described it in Jazz Times, is heard in a continuing, luminous autobiography in "Love Stories" -- one of dreams destroyed, regained, abandoned and surprisingly fulfilled. He uses space like an inner musical instrument.

Reviewing Mr. Reed's performance at New York's Jazz Standard, Joe Lang (Jazz Improv, January 2008) noted that the balladeer included two seldom-heard songs: Billy Strayhorn's "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing" and Thelonious Monk's "Ask Me Now," with lyrics by Jon Hendricks. (Both are on Mr. Reed's first CD).

"Reed is a singer," Mr. Lang wrote, "who truly uses his hands to augment his lyrics readings; and on 'Flower,' he almost made you see the blooms that are mentioned in the words. The regretful lyrics of 'Ask Me Now' were, making you ponder how many times in life you rue not listening or caring when you really should have done so."

As I told Mr. Reed, after being immersed in both his recordings, I found myself commingling some of my own life stories with his. In continuing wonder at where he is now in life and in music, Mr. Reed says: "I had no idea, in my wildest imaginings, that my dreams would come true." But, he re-emphasizes, it is the other work -- "The Art and Practice of Living Well" -- that "really gives me joy -- connecting people with themselves. It is the work of my life. The music is playtime," he told me recently. "Searching for a tune, listening, singing, either alone, or in front of a crowd, and I never want to go to bed."