John Reid

John Reid

Saxophone, Flute & Vocalist

Kim Szabo

Kim Szabo

Pianist, Vocalist & Arranger

Jon Day

Jon Day

Pianist, Trumpet & Vocalist

John Gray

John Gray

Upright Bass

Meet John Reid

Jon Day

Education:

Bachelor of Music, University of Calgary (Canada), Major in School Music, Minor in Performance.

Master of Arts (Jazz history and Research), Rutgers: The State University of New Jersey. Thesis: The Music and Life of Dexter Gordon. Supervisor: Dr. Lewis Porter

Recent Positions held:

University of Calgary, Adjunct Professor (1983 to 2025): Jazz History, The African Effect in Music, History of Funk Music, History of the Blues, Salsa Music and Latin Music, Broadway Musicals, The Music and Life of James Brown, New York City: Broadway Musicals, Jazz, and Culture (travel program); The Music and Culture of Cuba (travel program), New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (travel program), Chicago Blues Festival, (travel program)

Canadian Music Centre, Prairie Region: Prairie Regional Director (1988 to 2024).

Professional musician (saxophone, clarinet, flute, vocals) (1970 to present).

Performance Bio

John Reid is an award-winning musician (three-time winner in the National Flute Association/USA – Jazz Flute Big Band Competition, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Recording grant for the albums Island Shuffle and Caravan)  on saxophone, flute, clarinet, percussion, vocals, composer (also arts administrator, adjunct university professor, writer, concert presenter).

In 1974, at the encouragement GRAMMY Award winner Oscar Peterson and JUNO Award winner Phil Nimmons, he formed a quartet at the inaugural Banff Centre Jazz Workshop to make a Jazz Radio Canada broadcast, the first of many CBC broadcast recordings over the years. He has recorded three commercially available compact discs: Island Shuffle (1993), Caravan (2003), and The Joy Riders (2007). The John Reid Quartet performed at the Havana Jazz Plaza International Festival in December of 2002.

John Reid has shared the stage with the coveted EGOT, winners of EMMY, GRAMMY, OSCAR, and TONY awards (it could be said that John Reid is an EGOT-once removed!):

  • 5 EMMY Award winners (10 awards),
  • 15 GRAMMY Award winners (27 awards),
  • 2 OSCAR Award winners (6 awards),
  • 2 TONY Award winners

As well as one member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He has also shared stage with:

  • 15 HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame winners,
  • 10 JUNO Award winners (27 awards),
  • Seven winners of the Order of Canada,
  • Four National Endowment for the Arts – USA – NEA Jazz Masters.
  • One Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member (Sam Moore of Sam and Dave)

These are including the following artists:

  • GRAMMY and HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame award winner and NEA Jazz Master Dizzy Gillespie (with the Saturday Pro Band),
  • NEA Jazz Master Lee Konitz,
  • JUNO Award winner Hugh Fraser (recorded for CBC),
  • GRAMMY and HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame award winner Tom Jones,
  • JUNO Award winner Phil Nimmons, O.C.,
  • HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame Award winner Della Reese,
  • JUNO Award winner Don Thompson, O.C.,
  • EMMY, GOLDEN GLOBE and HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame Award winner Red Skelton,
  • JUNO Award winner P.J. Perry C.M.,
  • GRAMMY, EMMY and HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame Award winner Joan Rivers,
  • JUNO Award winner Senator Tommy Banks and the 1988 Olympic Orchestra,
  • GRAMMY and HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame Award winner Lou Rawls,
  • Bernie Senensky,
  • EMMY and HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame Award winner Harry Connick Jr.,
  • David Friesen,
  • GRAMMY Award winner Rosemary Clooney,
  • Ron Paley,
  • GRAMMY Award winner Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave),
  • GRAMMY and JUNO Award winner Diana Krall,
  • JUNO Award winner Brad Turner,
  • HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame Award winner Connie Stevens,
  • NEA Jazz Master Bob Brookmeyer (with the Saturday Pro Band at Edmonton’s Jazz City Festival),
  • GRAMMY and HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame Award winner Mitch Miller,
  • EMMY Award winner Hal Linden,
  • TONY Award Ben Vereen,
  • GRAMMY and HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame Award winner Crystal Gayle,
  • GRAMMY and HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame Award winner Helen Reddy,
  • GRAMMY and HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame Award winner Fifth Dimension,
  • OSCAR, GOLDEN GLOBE and HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame Award winner Joel Grey,
  • OSCAR and EMMY Award winner Bob Hope,
  • JUNO award winner Gino Vanelli,
  • Orlando “Maraca” Valle
  • Lesley Gore,
  • Jeff Healey,
  • Rich Little
  • Catherine McKinnon
  • GRAMMY and HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame Award winner Johnny Mathis,
  • Maestro Hans Graf and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.
  • The John Reid Quartet played warm-up for GRAMMY Award and HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame winner Mel Tormé at the Jack Singer Concert Hall,
  • GRAMMY Award winner Doc Severinsen Orchestra played warm-up for the John Reid Quartet for the CPO at a private home in Calgary,
  • John Reid has performed for Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson, Alberta Lieutenant-Governor Lois Hole, and Prime Ministers Pierre Trudeau and John Diefenbaker.

After playing with local rock bands in Calgary, he turned professional in 1971 with the amazing 25-piece Las Vegas-style, Calgary-based show group Stratus Faction that toured North America and did TV shows for CTV and CBC networks. He also toured with territory funk bands in the 70s before completing his Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Calgary in 1979.

Reid was awarded the Master of Arts in Jazz History and Research degree at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in 2010 (thesis topic: Dexter Gordon; supervisor: John Coltrane & Lester Young expert, Dr. Lewis Porter).

Music Presentor

Reid is also the founder, past chairman and past artistic director of the Calgary International Jazz Festival and founding secretary and past president of the Jazz Calgary society. In those capacities over the years, he has presented 11 GRAMMY Award winners, four NEA Jazz Master Award winners, one JUNO Award winner, and one HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame winner including:

  • GRAMMY Award winner (and OSCAR nominee) Dexter Gordon,
  • GRAMMY Award winner Bill Evans,
  • Sun Ra Arkestra NEA Jazz Master,
  • GRAMMY Award winner Buddy Guy,
  • Woody Shaw,
  • Johnny Griffin,
  • GRAMMY Award winner Betty Carter,
  • JUNO Award winner Oliver Jones, O.C.,
  • NEA Jazz Master Sheila Jordan,
  • GRAMMY Award winner Clark Terry,
  • Jim Hall,
  • Lew Tabackin,
  • NEA Jazz Master Toshiko Akiyoshi/Tabackin Jazz Orchestra,
  • GRAMMY Award winner Woody Herman Orchestra,
  • GRAMMY and NEA Jazz Master Award winner Phil Woods,
  • Art Pepper,
  • GRAMMY Award winner Herb Ellis,
  • Joe Zawinul/Zawinul Syndicate,
  • Pepper Adams,
  • GRAMMY Award winner Joe Henderson,
  • Michel Petrucciani,
  • GRAMMY and HOLLYWOOD Walk of Fame Award winner Tito Puente,
  • Al Cohn & Zoot Sims,
  • The Heath Brothers,
  • Sam Rivers,
  • Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis,
  • Ralph Towner & John Abercrombie,
  • GRAMMY Award winner Jack DeJohnette,
  • Tete Montoliu,
  • Mingus Dynasty,
  • Bobby Hutcherson
  • David Liebman, NEA Jazz Master.

John Reid was Founder and Artistic Director of the Jazz Is Society of Alberta (founded in Fall 1999) whose mission was to present jazz works to the public with an emphasis on collaborations among Calgary, Alberta, and Canadian jazz artists. The society has since morphed into Jazz YYC. The John Reid Quintet performed a jazz concert annually as a part of the Instrumental Society of Calgary concert series and has done tributes there to the music of Dexter Gordon, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, and Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, and Richard Rodgers. Those tributes continue in the present day with the Nebula Repertory Ensemble Association. Reid also performs regularly in quartet, trio, and duo combinations.

He is partner with young Brazilian jazz pianist and composer, Denis Nassar, in their group Brazil/Canada Connection and leads the Latin-jazz band Caravan, having studied and performed in Cuba.

He is a regular member of “The Cracked Pots” rhythm and blues worship band (led by pianist/vocalist Guy Plecash) at the weekly Celebrate Life Recovery service every Sunday night at 6:00 at Calgary’s Central United Church.

For several years, Reid was music director of the Springbank Big Band, an adult community stage band that toured to Cuba in February 2008 to the 25th Havana Jazz Plaza International Festival, as well as performing in Trinidad-de-Cuba and Cienfuegos, and in New Orleans at the Crescent City Jazz Festival.

Reid played saxophone, flute, and clarinet with Calgary’s Bluesland Horn Band, which has released four CDs (Let’s Go Dancing, Down in New Orleans, Radio Waves, and Keep It In The Shadows) including three Reid originals. The band performed for the launch of CKUA’s new studios in the National Music Centre in Spring 2016.

In 2013, Reid was one of 35 winners of the National Flute Association (NFA) Jazz Flute Big Band (“recruited” by Ali Ryerson) and performed with the group at the NFA convention in that year at New Orleans. Reid was invited to play with the group at the Jazz Education Network conference in January 2015 in San Diego. Reid was one of 25 winners of the NFA JFBB competition in 2015, and one of 12 soloists selected to play with the group at the Washington, DC convention in August 2015 and at NFA Minneapolis in 2017.

Since 1988, John Reid has been the full-time Prairie Regional Director of the Canadian Music Centre in Calgary, working with Canada’s classical music composers to promote, distribute, and record their music. Retired in August 2024.

He is also the founder and artistic director of the Nebula Repertory Ensemble Association whose purpose is to facilitate musical repertoire explorations and investigations in a repertory ensemble for public performance and to curate, preserve, present, revive, and repeat those expositions in multiple performances where possible. The society was founded in 2019 and has so far presented concerts of the music of The Great American Songbook: George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers, as well as jazz composers: Herbie Hancock, The Great Saxophonists, Dexter Gordon, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, and Virtuosic Brazilian Music.

John Reid taught Jazz History on an annual basis as an Instructor at the Department of Music at the University of Calgary since 1984 to 2025. He has also taught several other Music History and Literature fine arts option courses there: The History of Funk Music, The History of the Blues, The African Effect in Music, Salsa Music and Latin Music, New York City: Broadway Musicals, Music and Culture; Music and Culture of Havana, Cuba; Chicago Blues Festival, New Orleans Jazz and heritage Festival, and has once co-taught The History of Broadway Musicals with Prof. Kenneth Delong.

Currently, Reid has a monthly residency at Kawa Café, Alvin’s Jazz Club, Gulbar nightclub, and Central United Church as well as playing often at Kensington Legion No. 264.

Reid developed a particular interest in the music of Cuba following several trips there between 2002 and 2008, has led tours to Cuba as Resource Person for the University of Calgary Continuing Education and Music departments and has had the honour of being called a “flautista Cubano” (Cuban flute player) by some fine Cuban musicians. He has also led tour groups to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (2012) and the Chicago Blues Festival (2014).