Fonds F0127 - John Reid fonds

Canadian musician (saxophones, flute, clarinet, percussion and vocals) and composer, John Reid is Prairie Regional Director of the Canadian Music Centre in Calgary, Alberta, and President, John Reid Music/John Reid Productions. He was the host of a jazz radio program which ran consecutively from April 1981 to September 1991 on CJAY 92FM (Calgary, Alberta).

Reid completed his Bachelor of Music at the University of Calgary in 1979 and Masters degree at Rutgers in 2010, the state university of New Jersey. Reid taught jazz history as a sessional instructor at the University of Calgary as well as a course on "The African effect in music". He is the founder and past chairman of the Calgary International Jazz Festival and founding secretary and past president of the Jazz Calgary Society.

Reid has accompanied and played with many artists in his career including Diana Krall, Tom Jones, Della Reese, Rosemary Clooney, Rich Little, Gino Vanelli, Tommy Banks, Dizzy Gillespie, Bob Murphy, Brad Shigeta, Jamie Parker, Phil Nimmons and Misako Kano. He premiered a new work for solo tenor saxophone (Improvisation No.1) for the New Works Calgary Society in 1991 and released his own CD of original compositions and jazz standards in 1993 called Island Shuffle. Reid has been an adjudicator for the Juno Awards, the Alcan Jazz Competition, the Prairie Music Awards and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and has performed for Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, Lieutenant-Governor Lois Hole, and Prime Ministers John Diefenbaker and Pierre Trudeau.

Reid has been leading his own jazz groups since 1974; his current group, The John Reid Quartet, has performed for jazz societies in Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina and Medicine Hat and jazz festivals in Calgary, Edmonton and Kaslo, British Columbia, as well as at the Havana (Cuba) International Jazz Festival in 2002. He is also involved with the Afro-Cuban-Latin-Jazz-Salsa-Funk band Caravan and the Gospel-Jazz project with pianist/singer Guy Plecash and singer Marie Bridge-Digney of Central United Church in Calgary, Alberta.