We love “Cult of Personality” because it’s one of the hardest hitting riffs in the classic rock canon. Catch it on drivetime radio and it’ll get your heart pumping faster than an extra double-shot of espresso. But we also love it because it launched Vernon Reid’s guitar into the mainstream. We’re unpacking Reid’s playing—from his early days in the NYC jazz underground through his work with Living Colour and into supergroup superstardom—and his longstanding gear-acquisition-syndrome.
This episode is brought to you by Reverend Guitars. Visit reverendguitars.com for more info.
The Free Form Funky Freqs—guitarist Vernon Reid, bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and drummer Calvin Weston—never play a note together before a show. Not even during soundcheck.
Owing to pandemic isolation, however, Hymn of the 3rd Galaxy was the first FFFF project to unfold asynchronously. First, Weston laid down his drums. Tacuma responded on bass. Reid brought up the rear with a pair of signature model Paul Reed Smiths and an abundance of digital and analog stompboxes, amp modelers, guitar synth floor units, and laptop-driven software synthesizers. There were no rules, save for this ironclad dictum: one uninterrupted take per track, no fixes, no overdubs. If it’s not “an organic improvised scenario,” in Tacuma’s words, it’s not Free Form Funky Freqs. It’s something else.
“I always dig an amp that’s gonna shake the room.” —Jamaaladeen Tacuma
“I just closed my eyes and pretended I was onstage with those guys,” Tacuma recalls. “The key was to keep the integrity of our process,” says Reid. “It was kind of like a self-imposed honor system.” This is, after all, a band that makes a point of not soundchecking together at gigs. “We have to explain this to house engineers,” Reid continues. “We’ll get sounds, then maybe check bass and drums, then guitar and drums. But we make it clear that the three of us are going to play only when it’s actually time to play.” To do otherwise would corrupt the method.
While their previous albums were live shows, the new FFFF opus was improvised in the studio—one artist at a time!
This improvisational purism makes sense given the band members’ overlapping histories in what Reid calls “the loose circle around Ornette Coleman.” The legendary alto saxophonist and free-jazz pioneer hired Tacuma for his groove-oriented ’70s band Prime Time, when the bassist was only 19. He later hired Weston, as well, at 17. “I was playing with [founding Prime Time drummer] Ronald Shannon Jackson,” adds Reid. “Calvin had played with Blood [experimental blues guitarist/singer James ‘Blood’ Ulmer].” There was a shared vein of experience in the contemporary avant-garde, and yet, as Tacuma observed to Reid one night, the three had never played together as a unit.
“We have to explain this to house engineers. We’ll get sounds, then maybe check bass and drums, then guitar and drums. But we make it clear that the three of us are going to play only when it’s actually time to play.” —Vernon Reid
Reid, of course, had also ascended to rock stardom with Living Colour in the late ’80s and cofounded the innovative Black Rock Coalition. For decades, each one of the Freqs had straddled genres and blown open the conversation about creative music in their time. It was practically fated for this band to form.
Vernon Reid’s Gear
Vernon Reid freqs-out on one of his PRS Custom Signature S2 Velas.
Photo by Sound Evidence
Guitars
- Two Paul Reed Smith Custom Vernon Reid Signature S2 Velas (one with EMGs, one with DS pickups)
- 1958 Gibson ES-345 (on “Earth”)
Amps
- Line 6 Helix
- Kemper Profiler
Strings & Picks
- D’Addario NYXLs (.011–.049)
- Dunlop 205s, Brass TeckPicks, V-Picks
- Graph Tech TUSQ 2.0 mm (“It’s kind of a fetish,” Reid says of his fascination with picks.)
Effects
- Moog MF-107 FreqBox
- Red Panda Tensor
- DigiTech Space Station
- Eventide H9
- Chase Bliss Tonal Recall
- Chase Bliss Dark World
- Boss SY-300
- Roland GI-20 Guitar MIDI Interface
- Spectrasonics Omnisphere software synth
- Arturia Pigments software synth
Studio production for FFFF has been divvied up evenly: Reid produced Urban Mythology, Vol. 1, Tacuma took the helm on Bon Vivant, and Weston brought the remote recording of Hymn of the 3rd Galaxy across the finish line. Each album bears the imprint of its producer in some way.
Weston named the new album and the individual tracks as well, and the meaning of it all becomes clear when you pull up a map of the Milky Way (one of three galaxies, along with Andromeda and Triangulum, that dominates what is known as the Local Group). “Near Arm,” “Outer Arm,” “Norma Arm,” “Perseus Arm,” “Sagittarius Arm,” “Orion Spur,” “Scutum Centaurus,” “Far 3 kpc”—these are names that astronomers have given to the Milky Way’s various regions. In this environment, “Earth” and “Sun” (two more track titles) are just infinitesimally small dots.
“Bill Connors’ playing is so full of fire, but it’s also emotionally vulnerable in a way.” —Vernon Reid
The album title is also a conscious reference to Return to Forever’s 1973 album Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy—the fusion supergroup’s one recording to feature guitarist Bill Connors. “That record was very important in my development,” says Reid. “Bill Connors’ playing on it is so full of fire, but it’s also emotionally vulnerable in a way. I was very affected by the compositions, as well. When Calvin mentioned the title, it put this project into a frame for me—the idea of spatial ambience—and that did affect my choices for sounds.”
Those sounds are an amalgam of raw, plugged-in lead guitar crunch and otherwordly sonic glitter: notes that start as notes but become starbursts, or decay like pyrotechnic embers; chordal shapes that overlap and gather into big nebulous clouds. With his seemingly limitless tech-heavy rig, Reid has all frequencies covered.
Jamaaladeen Tacuma’s Gear
Jamaaladeen Tacuma brings his epic funk at the 2003 Ponderosa Stomp festival in New Orleans, where he performed with James “Blood” Ulmer and FFFF drummer Calvin Weston.
Photo by Joseph A. Rosen
Effects
- Korg ToneWorks G5 Synth Bass Processor
- JAM Wahcko
- JAM WaterFall
- JAM LucyDreamer
Strings
- La Bella various-gauge sets
The groove is just as essential, and Tacuma and Weston know how to bring it, whether it’s a slow shuffle (“Perseus Arm”), a mid-tempo Meters-like vibe (“Norma Arm”), or an outbreak of fast, full-tilt abstraction (“Far 3 kpc,” “Sun”). Regardless of feel, Tacuma’s criterion for a bass sound is straightforward: “I always dig an amp that’s gonna shake the room. I mean, I need that room-shaker. Coming up in Philly, hearing R&B groups at the Uptown Theater, which was like the Apollo, as long as that bass was shakin’ the room, that was the most important thing. Aguilar has proven to be a wonderful addition to my setup for the clarity and punchiness, and the ability to dial in certain sounds that I want.” Holding up the Korg Toneworks G5 synth-bass unit that he used on Hymn, during our Zoom call, he adds: “I’m not really a pedal guy, but now and then I’ll bring one out for a special black-tie occasion.”
Ultimately, what explains FFFF’s ability to create together on the fly is musical intelligence and empathetic listening. When Reid’s guitar is more enveloping and spacious and legato, Tacuma’s playing might get busier, and vice versa. “If you go outside right now,” Tacuma observes, “somebody’s walking, somebody’s running. Somebody’s listening, somebody’s talking. Somebody’s eating, somebody’s drinking. All these things are happening, and with music it’s the same thing.” For Reid, as well, deciding when to go for maximum synthesized mayhem (“Galactic Bar”) or a cleaner, more identifiably guitaristic tone (“Earth”) is a matter of attending to the moment. “It’s different than dealing with songs that have a verse-chorus-bridge,” he says. “This is a whole different kind of flow.”
“I’m not really a pedal guy, but now and then I’ll bring one out for a special black-tie occasion.” —Jamaaladeen Tacuma
When discussion turns to Tacuma’s other projects, such as his 2017 album Gnawa Soul Experience, the bassist suggests a link between the FFFF worldview and the time he shared with ethnic Gnawa musicians in Essaouira, Morocco. “Musically, I learned so much,” he recalls. “When they play all night and they don’t have anything written in front of them, and they’re just grooving and going higher and higher in the music, that’s basically what we do, when you put it in perspective. People relate to that; they can understand that.”
With every Freqs encounter, the three bring new elements and ideas they’ve absorbed in the interim, and this keeps the music fresh and evolving. Tacuma and Weston continue to nourish their local Philly scene, mentoring and giving exposure to younger players. Tacuma’s annual Outsiders Improvised & Creative Music Festival always provides a burst of energy. Living Colour is still percolating since the release of Shade, its sixth album, in 2017. Meanwhile Reid has kept additional irons in the fire, including the Zig Zag Power Trio (with bassist Melvin Gibbs and Living Colour drummer Will Calhoun) and other projects. If he, Tacuma, and Weston keep up the pace, they could soon hit the big 100—the Freqs’ centenary performance. Stay tuned for that album.Free Form Funky Freqs Live | Ch0 | 2012
All hail the groove! Sure, this 2012, Ljubljana, Slovenia, performance by Vernon Reid, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and Calvin Weston is freaky … but the funky vibe dictates the flow of its ambient sounds. Catch Tacuma freestyling on the mic at 4:00.
Q: Have you ever met one of your guitar heroes? How did it go?
Emily Kokal — Warpaint
Photo by Robin Laananen
A: Yes—John Frusciante. It went great; we ended up living together for three years.
Emily Kokal's Current Obsession
Huerco S. and all things old and new ambient. Suzanne Ciani, Eno, Jon Hopkins, Autechre, Boards of Canada, Tony Scott. I listened to the Huerco S. album For Those of You Who Have Never (And Also Those Who Have) constantly before writing our new album. I don’t know if it had any direct effect on the album itself, but my favorite song on the record is called “Promises of Fertility,” and it did have a direct effect there, I think, because I’ve since had a child.
Howard Van Ackooy — Reader of the Month
A: I met Roger McGuinn back when the Byrds played the Peekskill Palace on June 29, 1969. They had just released Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, and McGuinn had a completely new Byrds lineup with Clarence White, John York, and Gene Parsons. It wasn’t exactly a popular time for the Byrds, and they were playing an afternoon and evening show that day. The afternoon show was a very small crowd, and my brother and I were sitting in the first row, waiting for the concert to begin. Roger walks in with his Rickenbacker over his shoulder and sits down between me and another guy and starts talking to us, and even asked us what songs we’d like to hear. It was a moment I’ll never forget, and both the afternoon and evening performances were terrific.
Howard Van Ackooy's Current Obsession:
My musical obsessions center around my love of guitars. It was hearing The Byrds’ Mr. Tambourine Man and seeing Roger (then Jim) McGuinn playing that Rickenbacker 12-string that made me want to play guitar. I started taking lessons, and even had a pair of those McGuinn “granny glasses.” Since then, I’ve acquired many guitars (mostly electric) and, of course, had to have a Rickenbacker (I have two: a 36012-string in jetglow, and a 360 6-string in mapleglow, like Roger’s). I currently play in a local band, Stark Raven, mostly for fun, and love playing any type of guitar rock!
Shawn Hammond — Chief Content Officer
A: While covering the 2007 Ellnora Guitar Festival at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I made my way to a beverage area set up for press and artists who’d arrived the night before the show opened. As I perused the small spread of beers, in walked one of my biggest influences from my teen years—the man who’d almost single-handedly gotten me into funky chords and blistering chromatic runs: Vernon Reid of Living Colour.
Vernon Reid digs in.
Before you knew it, we were sitting elbow to elbow on a comfy little couch, shooting the breeze about this and that. Truthfully, I can’t remember a single thing we talked about. I’m sure I came across like a starstruck, bumbling fool, but cool ol’ Vern must be used to that, because he didn’t let it show!
Shawn Hammond's Current Obsession:
I don’t know if I can quite call it an “obsession” (yet?), but I’m definitely finding myself more and more intrigued with opera, including Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème.
Jason Shadrick — Associate Editor
A: In 2004, my girlfriend (now wife) and I were at the Blue Note in New York to hear Jim Hall and Charlie Haden play as a duo. After the set we headed upstairs to hit the restroom before catching a cab. As I waited for her, the dressing room door opened a crack and out walked Jim Hall. “Hey man, how are you?” he said. I somehow formed a sentence before he invited me into his dressing room and closed the door. A few minutes later Charlie Haden popped in and I had this amazing talk with two absolute heroes. Then the door suddenly opened and both Jim and Charlie looked puzzled as this woman (my girlfriend) barged in. “She’s with me, guys.” Nearly 20 years later, that has become a core memory for me.
Jason Shadrick's Current Obsession:
Thanks to a few musical pit gigs (Kinky Boots and The Sound of Music), I’ve been drilling down on my reading chops. It’s very fulfilling to be tasked to play the exact same thing night after night while a live theater show is happening above your head. There’s no musical issue that 100 gigs can’t fix.