Reid Speaks Passionately Through His Performances

To live well, says musician Joe Reid, who will be performing with his trio this Saturday, 3 p.m., at the Belmont Public Library's Assembly Room, “a person needs to be inspired by a passion and be comfortable in his own skin.”

For him, every person has a talent, unique as a fingerprint, which he or she is obligated to develop. Reid is fond of the saying that “just because you aren’t Martin Luther King doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk.”

Reid talks through his music.

Reid has lived in Belmont, with his wife, three children, a dog and a cat, for a dozen years. He was always a musician, but not dedicated to it full time. As a child, Reid had classical violin and piano lessons, but gravitated toward jazz from the 8th grade on; by the 9th grade, he had performed jazz on local radio.

Reid grew up in Cambridge, went to Harvard for history and Northeastern for law. After he graduated with his J.D. in the mid-1980s, he practiced contracts and real estate law in Boston.

Yet, to use his own phrase, he wasn’t comfortable in his own skin. He missed immersing himself in music. The practice of law had its own set of stresses, a day, night, and weekend kind of schedule, always on the prowl for new business.

A musician’s life, Reid recognized, could have its stresses too, along with no guarantees of steady employment, long hours and offbeat schedule. But the issue for Reid was doing something he enjoyed.

Many can identify with the heart vs. head, love vs. necessity struggle in their own career choices. Reid decided that it was time “to fight self-doubt and commit to something I really wanted to do.” In 1999, he turned to music.

Since then, Reid plays more than 100 performances a year in the local area including religious services, working with klezmer bands, cabarets, dance groups, choral societies, supper clubs, jazz programs like the one at the Library, and once in a while, a stage show.

He also teaches piano and music theory at his home in Belmont and at the New School of Music in Cambridge. Reid himself continues his study of music and jazz. He also composes pieces, which he performs.

Dedicated to improvise

Perhaps Reid’s interest the jazz is in the freedom and individuality identified with this American art form.  Unlike classical music, where performers are required to follow the notes on the page, the actual score, jazz performers are expected -- and indeed celebrated – when they improvise on the melody.

At the Saturday performance, for example, Reid’s trio will play standards by Frank Loesser and Cole Porter, among others, but no doubt the pianist, bass player and drummer will verge from the melody and rhythm to improvise and thus make their own unique contributions to the music. Also interesting is that, if they played the same song the following week, their performance would certainly be different: the performance was special, and for that moment.

Reid also likes music for its community of artists. He contends that musicians form a fellowship, a feeling for their passion and craft so deep that several musicians, strangers to each other, can play well together in a short time. In effect, they don’t know each other, but they know what they like and love. 

The Joe Reid Trio will present a program of jazz standards and original compositions at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 9, in the Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library, 366 Concord Ave., as part of the Music on Saturday Concert series. The concert features composer Joe Reid (piano), with Sean Farias (bass) and Miki Matsuki (drums).

The program is free and sponsored by the Friends of the Belmont Public Library.