Reginald "Reggie" Workman (born June 26, 1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his important work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey.
Biography
He was a member of jazz groups led by Gigi Gryce, Roy Haynes and Red Garland. In 1961, Workman joined the John Coltrane Quartet, replacing Steve Davis. He was present for the saxophonist's legendary Live at the Village Vanguard sessions, and also appeared with a second bassist (Art Davis) on the 1961 album, Ole Coltrane.
After a European tour, Workman left Coltrane's group at the end of the year. Workman also played with James Moody, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Yusef Lateef, Herbie Mann and Thelonious Monk. He has recorded with Archie Shepp, Lee Morgan and David Murray.
He is currently a professor at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City.
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A Fireside Chat with Reggie Workman
Why would someone leave the John Coltrane Quartet? That question still stigmatizes Workman forty years after his departure, overshadowing his impressive collaborations as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers (with Wayne Shorter and Lee Morgan), and with Yusef Lateef, Sam Rivers, Andrew Hill, Archie Shepp, and Freddie Hubbard. So I asked. The following is my conversation with Reggie Workman, a groundbreaking bassist unfairly labeled 'avant-garde' and the before mentioned Trane water he has carried for far too long, unedited and in his own words.
FRED JUNG: Let's start from the beginning.
REGGIE WORKMAN: Because of environment. The environment probably prompted me to want to be a part what it was because music is a part of the environment that most of us grew up in. It was quite unlike it is today. There was a lot of live music, a lot of live venues for new music, a lot of great musicians who lived in the communities around Philadelphia, a lot of theaters, a lot of activity that would encourage a younger person to be a pert of the scene. I started as a very young person, eight or nine years old, studying piano and I think my parents recognized that. So that is the way I started as a young person. My parents probably recognized how music was a part of our community and put me in touch with some lessons and from there it grew. Now, that I look back on the situation, I realize how much the culture has to do with the evolution of a people. A lot of our institutions as a young person in the school systems and so forth didn't encourage too much cultural evolution, but that was a natural thing in our community. I think my parents recognized that and in developed from there. I stopped dealing with piano when I was about twelve years old, thirteen. The sports in the streets called me and so I got involved with that and left piano to grow into another area of life. I had a cousin, who recently passed, encouraged me. He used to stand me up by his bass and showed me how to play it and I liked that sound. Eventually, I went looking for it and so I started to play the bass in my final year of junior high school. They didn't have a bass, so I ended up playing wind instruments until a bass came, just before I graduated. Then from there, I moved over to high school, where I got an instrument and eventually got my own instrument and have been studying it ever since.
FJ: Give me your impression of Lee Morgan.
RW: Lee Morgan and I grew up together. We both grew up around Philadelphia and so we played a lot together around the scene. We knew one another. We knew the same people. He had a giant record collection, so we used to hang out a lot. He went to a music school in New York. We often crossed paths. He was a delightful person and tremendous talent.
FJ: Wayne Shorter.
RW: That happened during the time when Wayne was just growing into himself and I was in
New York. A lot of musicians convened on the scene in New York from all over the world, Wayne coming from the New Jersey area. We often ended up on the bandstand together even before the Art Blakey days. Then as we grew, we all ended up in the band together. All the people who you heard in the classic Art Blakey ensembles often would see one another in New York over the years and during the years prior because of just what the scene was. There were places to work. There were jobs. There were jam sessions. There were reasons to be crossing one another's path.
FJ: And Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter in the frontline along with you and Blakey in the rhythm section is why that band is so highly thought of.
RW: Of course, everyone was significant as they always have been. As you grow, you get an idea of who's who. They are not just significant because they have been embraced by the system. They were significant because they had something to offer when they were very young musicians and they always have had that gift throughout their career.
FJ: And the same holds true of your association with John Coltrane?
RW: Our association wasn't brief. John Coltrane spent a lot of time in Philadelphia, where I am from and therefore, we saw one another long before I joined the group. Even through the late Sixties, we spent a lot of time traveling and making music together. He was developing and I was developing and our paths crossed for a while.
FJ: You must have been asked this numerously through the years, but with such a kinship, why did you leave the band?
RW: I'm a bit tired of those questions. I left the band because my father was dying and I had to leave New York and go back home and take care of my family, number one. Number two, John and the rest of the band was growing very fast and John had decided that he wanted to try another voice in his bass chair. He had been listening to Ornette Coleman, who had Jimmy Garrison in the group and Coleman suggested he try Jimmy and he did. That was a great union. Of course, Jimmy was very compatible with everybody in the band.
FJ: So no regrets?
RW: I think we have an idea of what is in store for us in life and what you can achieve and what you want to do. So be it. It is like any other profession.
FJ: With convincing albums Summit Conference, Cerebral Caverns, and Altered Spaces, why haven't you recorded more?
“I used to study the Hindu philosophy... one thing that it taught me was that when you reach beyond a certain point, you leave a lot of people by the wayside. You move away from a lot of people and your society becomes a lot smaller...”
RW: Looking back on that situation, I realized that while a lot of people were spending time developing and honing their skills for composing and developing a band, I was busy helping somebody else with their program as being a supporting artist. You can start down that path and before you know it, and this is a good thing to say to the younger musicians, you will find yourself moving down that path and there is nobody that pulls your coat, you haven't developed what you need developed as a bandleader, as a composer, as a person who is shaping the way the music is going as far as what the industry considers significant. That is what I see happened in my life. Later on in life when I realized that, I decided that it was time for me to change, but of course, when I was prepared to make that change, I had already been through quite a few groups, quite a number of groups, so my ideas were a little different from the average person who was stepping into that arena and that was not always sellable in regards to the industry's whims. I realized that as you grow your society becomes smaller so you don't expect to be
among the stars in the industry when you want to do something different. That is what happens to the person who decides to stick to their guns and do that. During those days, it was a little bit different than it is now. The message was different. If you are a follower of the music, you will hear those people who made different moves and who evolved. If you are an intelligent person, when you listen to the growth of each one of those musicians, you will understand where their mind is because everything is apparent.
FJ: Evidence just reissued Great Friends with Sunny Fortune and Billy Harper.
RW: Most of the music that you listen to in this world of music never grows old. The more you listen to it, the more you hear in it because of just what is real in the world. When we did that product, we were taking a group to Europe to tour. I have a sister who is married to a Frenchman and she was working for a company there, Black & Blue, the original label that we produced the record on because of her wanted our group to record for her and we did. It came out, but it was only for Europe. Evidence became interested in it and put it out here. It is not something that will grow old because all the musicians are fresh and everybody is really playing good on it. It is just too bad that it was twenty-something years later before people get a chance to hear what was on your mind and they expect you to still be there. Not so. Everybody has moved onto their own ideas and their own thoughts and their own desires. Consequently, because of the amount of time that it takes for something to come out, that is what happens. Bands fall apart in the interim. That was a lot like when we were working with John. Bob Theile let John put in the contract that if he records for him, the record must come out within 'X' amount of months so that people will not come to you and ask you to play something that is old hat to you. Your mind has moved onto other things in five minutes, let alone five months. When I first joined John's group, people would ask him to play 'Favorite Things' and he didn't want to think about that. He did it because he was that kind of person who could do anything that he wanted to do and make it fresh, but he realized very quickly that his mind and his soul was moving so fast and the message was so futuristic that he didn't want to paint himself into a corner, so he had that put into the contract.
FJ: And the future?
RW: I have a group. I lost the saxophonist who was prime in the group. He had some problems and he fell off the scene. The groups that I have now, they vary because people have different things and I am not consistent enough in the business to keep it together. I am trying to pass my knowledge onto younger musicians and that takes a lot of time and energy along with living life and things that you have to do to keep up with this world. I am hearing certain things. I have certain ideas that I would like to do as far as the music is concerned, but I don't want to just get out there and do it. I want to spend some time with it before we present it. Spending time with it means finding people who have the time to spend with you and that is not easy to do. When you are away from the music, you are not at your best physical state like Tyson couldn't win after being in the joint for a few years. So you are not in the best physical state as far as your performance is concerned, so you become a little reluctant to just jump out there without some preparation. That is where I am right now. Between having had the time when I was very active in the music world and living through a time now, when I am not as active, I would like to be, in my mind, I would like to do several large projects which I have not done many of through my career. I am working on a opera right now. That is the direction that I want to go in. I would like not to spend a lot of energy and time with being a supporting artists for other person's projects because I have learned over the years that that doesn't work. I used to study the Hindu philosophy a lot and one thing that it taught me was that when you reach beyond a certain point, you leave a lot of people by the wayside. You move away from a lot of people and your society becomes a lot smaller according to which direction you are moving in. If you understand that reality, then you understand how to accept the fact that your society is smaller and therefore, the reward is smaller. I have seen some really great rewards. First of all, Fred, I am still on the planet. A lot of my associates are not. I have a beautiful family. I think that is a great reward. It comes back in different ways depending on where you values are, you will realize whether it is a reward or whether it is a detriment.
FJ: So the record opportunities have been there.
RW: Yes, I have, but I have just been really too busy with other things to really concentrate on it. It is about time for me to do that again. I just have not been able to do that. You can see my track record on the net, so you know what I have done. Those two pieces had a significance in that there was a musician who gave me the latitude to move the way that I moved and he liked the people that I chose. I say he, and that was Ralph Simon, who was the A&R man at Postcard at the time. I am busy with so many other things that I am not able to just jump out and make a document. As a matter of fact, Fred, I don't want to make a document under the circumstances as they are now. I would rather not document what is happening at this particular time. I would rather prepare something that is more in tune with where my head is. For example, we did the Summit Conference album. That was an idea that I had as far as presenting myself and get together with the people that are responsible for the cornerstones of this music. The other
product was a sequel to that and the next thing would be a sequel to the second. It won't be a record just because someone says, 'Let's do a record.' I'm not interested in that. I am interested in doing something significant as far as my desire and my ideals are concerned. Otherwise, I would rather do nothing at all.
FJ: Compromise isn't in your nature.
RW: There may be only a few people who appreciate it, but I would rather be in the company of those few than the many who don't know what they are listening to or what you are trying to say.
Source: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=264
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Reggie Workman: Sculptured SoundsBy Terrell Kent HolmesBassist Reggie Workman has spent almost 50 years participating in the shaping of modern jazz, playing with groups led by Art Blakey, Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, Archie Shepp and John Coltrane, using those experiences to form his own unique brand of improvising and composing. Just a few months short of 70, Workman continues to record and tour, as well as teach at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Lately he has focused his considerable energy towards organizing the Sculptured Sounds Music Festival, a series of shows taking place on Sundays this month at Saint Peter's Church.
All About Jazz: What was the driving force behind Sculptured Sounds?
Reggie Workman: The idea for the festival grew out of an ongoing conversation with my co-founder Francina Connors about the music scene becoming more barren and fewer and fewer venues in which to perform. The reason we wanted to do this festival is because, as a musician myself... We looked around and realized that a lot of us musicians who would like to [perform] in New York end up having to go to Europe and the people here never hear what's on our minds... You have a certain number of people who are always in vogue, always up front, always before your ears and eyes. And there's a whole cadre of people who are doing creative things who never get to be heard.
AAJ: Back in the day [jazz musicians] went to Europe because European club owners and audiences were more receptive.
RW: They still are, even though the ratio is a little different. Entrepreneurs in Europe are more nationalistic now; they are hiring more of the local performers than before. With this Homeland Security Act it's more difficult to travel with your instruments. But still, even with all of those problems, it's better to have your boundaries not set at the Atlantic and the Pacific. But we don't want to come back home to ignorance, you know, where people somewhere else know more about the music and your creativity than the people right here.
“The concept was Okay, you’re not working much in New York, people think you’ve moved to Europe or you don’t exist or you’re not alive, let’s come out and be visible and while [we’re] doing it let’s bring the other people who are your compadres along with you.”
AAJ: How was the [December 10th] Preview Concert received?
RW: First let me step back a bit and say we chose Saint Peter's for the festival because of its history as a jazz ministry started by the late Rev. John Gensel. It's affectionately known as the "jazz church" and Francina has performed at Saint Peter's and has been involved with various projects at the church. Coming forward, we wanted to do a preview concert for two reasons. One is because of the calendars and schedules of the people and the venue. Another, because we need to do something [like] sticking [a] toe in the water, a feeler, to see what we had to do to make it better, to make it run smoothly. Notice [that] we put it just after Thanksgiving and just before Christmas, right in the middle so [that] it could be not [subject to] the same excuse[s] that people usually have.
You can't imagine what has to be done... In New York people have so much to choose from. It's such a big smorgasbord of art that we can't expect that we are gonna be strong enough to get everybody or the majority into that church. Therefore we want to work hard enough to let the people know that the quality is high enough that this is a place to be in February.
AAJ: What did you learn?
“The concept was 'Okay, you're not working much in New York, people think you've moved to Europe or you don't exist or you're not alive, let's come out and be visible.”
RW: Well first of all, we learned that we have to condense the performance a bit. Secondly, we learned that we have to reach out to people who ordinarily don't pick up the [Village] Voice, don't pick up the trades. We realized that things are not the same as they used to be, so our technique for reaching all those people must be a little bit different. We realize that we have to have a smooth team and plan to run it if you're expecting to bring people in. We learned that we have to get an earlier start with everything because before you know it the event is on you and you're not completely prepared. So we have to figure out how to balance our energies.
AAJ: It should be pointed out that Sculptured Sounds Music Festival isn't just about music...there's also spoken word and an art exhibit.
RW: The word is "The musicians are artists, the spoken word people are artists, the people who paint, whatever. The word is "and we know that a lot of our art comes from different directions in different formats. So we don't want to exclude anybody who is dealing with that.
AAJ: What's the format of the show?
RW: Pre-concert activities begin the space that you enter coming down the stairs, the “Living Room,� not the sanctuary. The living room will be set up with the vending tables of artists performing that night as well as other artists in the festival who have elected to vend that night. At the same time, in another section of the living room space a pre-concert lecture/ demonstration will be going on. [The Preview Concert featured an art exhibit and discussion by musician/artists Oliver Lake and Dick Griffin.] That kicks off at seven o'clock. So the people can come in, they can mill around, they can feel the atmosphere, buy some CDs if they want to, whatever the case may be. At 7:15, we open the doors to the Sanctuary and hope to start promptly at 7:30.
AAJ: On the last night [February 25th] your daughter is playing in one of the groups, so Sculptured Sounds is kind of a family thing.
RW: [The group] Sojourner is my daughter's [Nioka] project. [February] 25th is called the African-American Legacy Project, which is a concept that Charles Tolliver and I put together. That project relates to the music of great composers who have contributed to the legacy of African-American music, [and] we will be performing in big band and choir fashion. I asked Nioka to bring her group in and [bass guitarist] Matthew Garrison has [said] that he would bring his trio in. He's Jimmy Garrison's son. When we did Lincoln Center we had Roy Haynes'son [cornetist Graham] and Cal Massey's son [tenor saxophonist Zane] involved with it. So the purpose is to create some kind of a vehicle for our links to the people who will move the music to the next space and carry it forward.
Now that's in tribute to Black History Month, so we made that a free concert. We want people from Philadelphia, all around Massachusetts [to know] that it's happening... They may be willing to drive up here and be a part of it because it's going to be something special. And it's worth a couple of hours on the highway. We'll do that in such a way that we'll be finished at about 11-11:30. I asked James Browne [manager of Sweet Rhythm] to keep his club open for people who have driven that far to come down and relax. He said "Well, you know, we don't open on Sunday." So I said "Will you open on Sunday for this occasion He said he would do it. So that's another one of the things we're working toward, trying to have Sweet Rhythm open after the concert. Another thing that we have to do is get a core group down there, because whenever you have a gathering like that you need music.
AAJ: Is the Sculptured Sounds Music Festival just for this year, or, depending on the reception, would you do it again?
RW: Like you say, depending on the reception. It requires so much work. As I said, those 20-hour days... Whether or not you can continue to evolve and do that year after year, with the kind of resources we have at this point and with the kind of connections that we have in the media, depending on the response and the support that we get, will tell us whether it's a thing that we should continue with or not. From the response to the Preview Concert, I'm very optimistic. But it takes a lot out of one, so [it will depend] on how much it gives back to us.
Source: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=24456
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About Reggie Workman
Legendary Bassist, Composer And Ardent Advocate of Arts Education …
Reggie Workman has long been recognized as one of the most original and technically gifted of all bassists in modern music. His versatile style spans Post-Bop to Futuristic, incorporating contemporary approach to jazz improvisation and compositions. His uncanny ability to equally understand and share musical ideas with such diverse musicians as Art Blakey on one side and Cecil Taylor on the other is stunning. Workman has invented his own language of sound and expression as a performer and composer.
A native of Philadelphia, Workman began playing the piano, tuba, and euphonium early on but settled on bass in the mid-’50s. He quickly graduated to working regularly with Gigi Gryce (1958), Red Garland, and Roy Haynes, later joining the John Coltrane Quartet, participating on several landmark important recordings.
With extensive performing and recording credits, Workman has performed and recorded with the giants of jazz including John Coltrane, Art Blakely and the Jazz Messengers, Eric Dolphy, Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, Cecil Taylor, Jeanne Lee, Mal Waldron, Archie Shepp, Sam Rivers, Trio 3 and Great Friends as well as emerging jazz legends such as Jason Moran.
In the 1970’s, Workman established himself as a bandleader, composer, arranger and producer when he first presented his stellar group, Top Shelf. By the 1980s, Workman began expanding his musical concept, exploring more experimental approaches while incorporating dance and theater. Fellow artists in these more experimental configurations included Amiri Baraka, Jason Hwang, Genevieve Lamb, Gerry Hemingway, Marilyn Grispell, Dianne Grotke, Maya Millenovic, also formed the high-octane collective, Trio 3 (with Oliver Lake and Andrew Cyrille). Workman also began actively composing and recording his own works with Altered States (with the late Jeanne Lee) and the critically acclaimed Cerebral Caverns (collaborating with Gerry Hemingway, Julian Priester, Geri Allen, Sam Rivers, Al Foster, Tappan Modak and Elizabeth Panzer) and the 1993 Summit Conference session with Sam Rivers, the late Andrew Hill, Pheeroan aKLaaf and Julian Priester. (For a more extensive discography, see www.bb10k.com/workman.disc.html).
An ardent advocate of the arts, Workman has always been active in music outreach and education to the community. He Co-Founded the historic Collective Black Artists (CBA), and was Music Director of the famous New Muse Community Museum (Brooklyn, NY). His current community endeavors include Co-Director of The Montclair Academy of Dance & Laboratory of Music and Co-Founder (with Singer/Writer Francina Connors) and Producer of the Sculptured Sounds Music Festival, an artist-driven festival of futuristic music and concepts.
At the University level, Workman has served on the faculty at The University of Michigan, Bennington College, Long Island University. He is also proud to be associated with the establishment of the one of first African-American studies programs in the U.S. at the University of Massachusetts (UMASS.) This historic program boasted such important artist-educators as Max Roach, Yuseff Lateff, Archie Shepp, Nelson Stevens, Sonia Sanchez, as well as Aklyn Lynch, Roland Wiggins, Bill Hassan and Horace Boyer. Prominent graduates of this department are Bill Cosby, Jimmy Owens, Cannonball Adderley and Dr. Billy Taylor.
Presently, Workman is an Associate Professor at New York’s famed The New School (Jazz and Contemporary Music Department) where, in 2007, he celebrated his twentieth-year and was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award.
Workman’s other awards and recognitions include Meet the Composer, MidAtlantic Arts, the Eubie Blake Award and Living Legend Award from the Philadelphia African-American Historical and Cultural Museum, in recognition of his international performances and recordings.
Today, Workman continues his arts advocacy, teaching, developing new music arts curriculums and workshops, managing a steady tour schedule as a guest artist and with Trio 3 as well as presenting various Reggie Workman ensembles under the umbrella of his production company, Sculptured Sounds, in the United States and internationally.
Source: www.sculpturedsounds.com/www.myspace.com/reggieworkman
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Biography by Scott Yanow & Joslyn Layne
Reggie Workman has long been one of the most technically gifted of all bassists, a brilliant player whose versatile style fits into both hard bop and very avant-garde settings. He played piano, tuba, and euphonium early on but settled on bass in the mid-'50s. After working regularly with Gigi Gryce (1958), Red Garland, and Roy Haynes, he was a member of the John Coltrane Quartet for much of 1961, participating in several important recordings and even appearing with Coltrane and Eric Dolphy on a half-hour West German television show that is currently available on video (The Coltrane Legacy). After Jimmy Garrison took his place with Coltrane, Workman became a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers (1962-1964) and was in the groups of Yusef Lateef (1964-65), Herbie Mann, and Thelonious Monk (1967). He recorded frequently in the 1960s (including many Blue Note dates and Archie Shepp's classic Four for Trane).
Since that time, Workman has been both an educator (serving on the faculty of music schools including the University of Michigan) and a working musician, and has played with numerous legendary jazz musicians including Max Roach, Art Farmer, Mal Waldron, David Murray, Sam Rivers, and Andrew Hill (Rivers and Hill joined Workman for the 1993 session, Summit Conference). In the 1980s, Workman began leading his own group, the Reggie Workman Ensemble. He also began a collaboration with pianist Marilyn Crispell that lasted into the next decade (the two acclaimed musicians reunited for a festival performance in 2000). During the '90s, Workman was not only active with his own ensemble, but also in Trio Three, with Andrew Cyrille and Oliver Lake, and Reggie Workman's Grooveship and Extravaganza.
In recognition of Reggie Workman's international performances and recordings spanning over 40 years, he was named a Living Legend by the African-American Historical and Cultural Museum in his hometown of Philadelphia; he is also a recipient of the Eubie Blake Award.
Source: All Music Group
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Selected Discography
Trio 3, Encounter (Passin'Thru, 1999)
Reggie Workman, Summit Conference (Postcards, 1993)
Fortune/Harper/Cowell/Workman/Hart, Great Friends (Black & Blue-Evidence, 1986)
Alice Coltrane, Transfiguration (Warner Brothers-Sepia Tone, 1978)
Wayne Shorter, Adam's Apple (Blue Note, 1966)
John Coltrane, The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings (Impulse!-GRP, 1961)
Discography
As leaderSynthesis (1986)
Summit Conference (1993)
Cerebral Caverns (1995)
Images: The Reggie Workman Ensemble in Concert (1999)
Altered Spaces (2000)
As sidemanWith John Coltrane
Africa/Brass (1961)
Ole Coltrane (1961)
Impressions (1963)
With Bobby Hutcherson
Medina (1968)
Patterns (1968)
With Wayne Shorter
Night Dreamer (1964)
JuJu (1964)
Readmore...
Remembering Jimmy Garrison
When I started taking lessons from Jimmy I was the least schooled and proficient of his students, but he said he liked my attitude and "philosophy" toward music. (We would have very theoretical conversations ...) When I ran out of money, he offered to keep teaching me for free. 
Discography
As sideman
NYC, June 10, 19591. 3545 Small World Atco LP 33-109 
(vla -2) Joseph Tekula (vlc) Jim Hall (g) Scott LaFaro (b) Alvin Brehm (b -1) Sticks Evans (d -1) Gunther Schuller (comp, arr, cond) 
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