Guitarist Vernon Reid’s new album with Jack Bruce, John Medeski and Cindy Blackman-Santana is called Spectrum Road (Palmetto Records, 2012). Reid is the founder of the band Living Colour and of the Black Rock Coalition. He’s a skilled improviser whose history with jazz goes back several decades to New York’s downtown music scene. He’s also the co-host, with comedian W. Kamau Bell, of the Field Negro Guide to Arts & Culture. In this interview, Reid talks about how John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things” drew him into improvised music; the parallel development of improvisation in rock and jazz; the dangers of musical influence; and the decade-long conception and making of Spectrum Road. Learn more at facebook.com/vernonreid and follow him on Twitter at @vurnt22.

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