Sound Sculptor
When The Mind Also Dances
NEA Jazz Master Reggie Workman is a 2020 recipient for the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship Award, the nation’s highest honor in jazz!
Reggie, a native of Philadelphia, is a multi-faceted bassist, bandleader, composer, community organizer, educator, producer, and soloist-composer working with dancers & actors. He is recognized as one of the most original and technically gifted bassists in jazz and American contemporary music. His playing style spans between Post-Bop to futuristic concepts. Workman has invented and “sculpted” his own “sound -specific-scape” and is currently writing music for small groups, strings, and orchestra. Reggie tours develop new music/art curricula and workshops and present varied configurations of the “Reggie Workman Sound.”
Workman is a faculty member and professor at The New School's COPA. Three of Workman’s collaborations are sure to become classics: “Summit Conference” & “Cerebral Caverns” (Arkadia Records), “Great Friends Project” (Evidence Records). Reggie Workman is an NEA 2020 Jazz Master recipient and was named a Living Legend (by African-American Historical and Cultural Museum in Philadelphia), the Eubie Blake Award (Brooklyn, NY), Living Legend (Mid Atlantic Award), etc.
Workman has recorded and performed with the giants of jazz, including John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Eric Dolphy, Max Roach, Gigi Gryce, Mal Waldron, Roy Haynes, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Red Garland, Abbey Lincoln, Alice Coltrane, Geri Allen, Marilyn Crispell, Cecil Taylor, Sam Rivers, Roscoe Mitchell, Trio Three and Great Friends as well as new talents such as Jason Moran.
Reggie is currently collaborating on a Documentary Film about his unique life experience, theater readings and productions (Dos Worlds, Ophelia), work with Trio Imagination and re-establishing a collaborative Brew Trio with Gerry Hemingway (Percussion) and Mia Masaoka (Koto). His own "Suite Tristan" (for dancers) has been re-recorded and he is currently collaborating on two autobiographical books. Reggie Workman, in tandem with choreographer Maya Milenovic Workman, has been awarded a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship for music composition, the organization announced on April 9, 2020. On August 20th, 2020 The National Endowment for the Arts, in collaboration with SFJAZZ, honored 2020 NEA Jazz Masters Bobby McFerrin, Roscoe Mitchell, Reggie Workman, and Dorthaan Kirk—who is the recipient of the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for Jazz Advocacy— with the nation’s highest honor in jazz.
"The majority of people mistakenly feel like they don't need a live musical experience."
- Reggie Workman
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