Tomeka Reid expands the possibilities of jazz avant garde on 'Dance! Skip! Hop!'

Tomeka Reid creates a distinctive sound as both cellist and composer, with a cello presence that adds bounce and momentum to jazz. Her latest album is among her most compelling works, featuring two new recordings: one with pianist Craig Taborn and another with her long-standing quartet. Her quartet’s music draws from movement sources such as modern dance and children’s games, producing figures that feel like hopscotch and arrangements with visible “magic.” No single player dominates; all four members contribute equally. The group can shift between sounding like a string trio with perceptive percussion and delivering austere chamber-like intensity, as heard in earlier work.

"Spry isn't a word often associated with the jazz avant-garde, a style more commonly linked with either aggressively loud dissonance or austere meditative music. But Tomeka Reid would like to change that. Her quartet makes music full of movement inspirations, whether modern dance or child's play. The cascading figure there on the title track of her new recording "Dance! Skip! Hop!" feels like sunny afternoon hopscotch. And later in the track, you can hear the magic of the band's arrangements."

"No one player dominates the others. All four members of the quartet contribute equally to an appealing whole. Reid first recorded with this band 11 years ago. And the rapport and instrumentation allows them exceptional range. That's 2019 MacArthur scholar Mary Halvorson on guitar, drummer Tomas Fujiwara and bassist Jason Roebke."

"At times, they sound like a string trio with a perceptive percussionist, and at others, they have an austere intensity of a chamber ensemble, as they illustrated on "A(ways) For CC and CeCe." Reid's music often has a bounce to it as if her cello can exaggerate and accelerate the sound of a walking bass. But the bounce, he says, is only the beginning."

"Cellist and composer Tomeka Reid has a distinctive sound, both as a player and a writer. Jazz critic Martin Johnson says her instrument is uncommon in jazz, though no longer rare. Reid, who won a MacArthur in 2022, has two new recordings out - one as a side woman to pianist Craig Taborn, also a MacArthur winner, and another with her long-standing quartet."

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