(Gibson) Living Colour guitar virtuoso Vernon Reid has formed a new group, and it includes some pretty impressive names. Spectrum Road, which specializes in jazz-rock, also features Cream bassist Jack Bruce, Medeski Martin and Wood keyboardist John Medeski and Santana drummer (and Carlos's wife) Cindy Blackman Santana. Their self-titled debut comes out on June 5.
Reid spoke about the group's unique sound with Rolling Stone. "[It's] definitely a jazz-rock thing but it has a rock edge, because one of the architects of modern rock [Bruce] is in the band and he's singing these tunes," Reid said. "It's kind of an odd combination of jazz-rock as we know it. John Medeski is such an odd keyboardist and so quirky, and one of the beautiful things is his use of the Mellotron on the record, because the Mellotron is not associated with jazz-rock and fusion to a large degree. It's more associated with King Crimson, Yes and the Moody Blues. It gives the thing a different feel and sonic signature."
Spectrum Road will play Bonnaroo on June 9, followed by sets at the Playboy Jazz Festival and the North Sea Jazz Festival. more on this story