The Floating Lounge is a community-focused, online listening party series produced by Spektral Quartet to bring curious listeners together during a time of isolation. Events feature high-quality streaming audio, special guests, and an interactive format that invites listeners to join in on the conversation.
A fellow Chicagoan we’d been admiring long before she ever wrote us a piece, Tomeka Reid is an unstoppable creative force…or as The New York Times put it, a “New Jazz Power Source.” Lucky for you, on December 16th, Tomeka hijacks the Spektral Zoom-waves and presents an evening of the music that inspires her.
One of the most fulfilling aspects of the Floating Lounge series for us is that singular experience of being introduced to a jaw-dropping track for the first time. We get to uncover unfamiliar music together, with you, guided by an artist who loves these creations deeply. It’s contagious…but the good kind.
If you’ve been to a Spektral show in the last five years, there’s a high likelihood that you’ve heard us play Tomeka’s hard-grooving Prospective Dwellers, an audience favorite everywhere we go. If you’re encountering her name for the first time, you are in for a very special evening.
About Tomeka Reid
Described as a “New Jazz Power Source” by the New York Times, cellist and composer TOMEKA REID has emerged as one of the most original, versatile, and curious musicians in Chicago’s bustling jazz and improvised music community over the last decade. Her distinctive melodic sensibility, always rooted in a strong sense of groove, has been featured in many distinguished ensembles over the years.
Reid grew up outside of Washington D.C., but her musical career began after moving to Chicago in 2000. Her work with Nicole Mitchell and various Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians-related groups proved influential. By focusing on developing her craft in countless improvisational contexts, Reid has achieved a stunning musical fluency. She is a Foundation of the Arts (2019) and 3Arts Awardee (2016), and received her doctorate in music from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2017.
Reid released her debut recording as a bandleader in 2015, with the Tomeka Reid Quartet, a vibrant showcase for the cellist’s improvisational acumen as well as her dynamic arrangements and compositional ability. The quartet’s second album, Old New, released in Oct 2019 on Cuneiform Records, has been described as “fresh and transformative--its songs striking out in bold, lyrical directions with plenty of Reid’s singularly elegant yet energetic and sharp-edged bow work.” Another reviewer noted that “while Reid’s compositional and technical gifts transcend jazz, they exemplify the tradition wondrously.”
Reid has been a key member of ensembles led by legendary reedists like Anthony Braxton (ZIM SEXTET) and Roscoe Mitchell (ROSCOE MITCHELL QUARTET, ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO), as well as a younger generation of visionaries including flutist Nicole Mitchell (BLACK EARTH ENSEMBLE, ARTIFACTS), vocalist Dee Alexander (EVOLUTION ENSEMBLE), and drummer Mike Reed (LOOSE ASSEMBLY, LIVING BY LANTERNS, ARTIFACTS). She co-leads the adventurous string trio HEAR IN NOW, with violinist Mazz Swift and bassist Silvia Bolognesi, and in 2013 launched the first Chicago Jazz String Summit, a semi-annual three-day international festival of cutting edge string players held in Chicago. In the Fall of 2019 Tomeka Reid received a teaching appointment at Mills College as the Darius Milhaud chair in composition.
Spektral Quartet’s programming is supported by our members, our donors, and by the following foundations and organizations:
