album 3+3 released on 26.4.2024 on Cuneiform Records

Cellist, composer and MacArthur Fellow Tomeka Reid explores
new improvisational math with 3+3, the third release by her all-star quartet and her most adventurous project as a leader yet.
Featuring Jason Roebke on bass, Tomas Fujiwara on drums,
and fellow MacArthur Fellow Mary Halvorson on guitar.

No artist over the past decade has done more to bring the cello from the margins to the center of the contemporary jazz scene than Tomeka Reid. Nurtured by the creative hothouse of Chicago’s AACM, she’s recorded prolifically since making her debut on flutist Nicole Mitchell’s 2002 Black Earth Ensemble album Afrika Rising. But with 3+3, Reid takes a major step as a composer with a bold and protean approach to designing settings for group improvisation.

Building on the deeply intuitive language explored by the quartet on her acclaimed Cuneiform debut, 2019’s Old New, Reid set out to explore extended themes. Over the course of three pieces that flow together much like a set the group plays in concert, the album captures the state-of-the-art ensemble moving with unhurried grace, constantly calibrating the evolving conversation.

“I see the whole album as a suite,” says Reid, who moved back to Chicago in 2020 after about four years in New York. “Previously I’d written shorter pieces and felt like I had to write ‘jazz pieces’, and for this album I wanted to write longer forms. I do a lot of free improvisation and wanted to reflect that more on my records. There are tunes on this too, but it’s more open.”

Part of what’s new for Reid is her expanded sonic palette, which can make it difficult to tell where her bow work and Halvorson’s electronics diverge. “As a string player, I used to be anti-electronics,” she says. “I love the acoustic cello sound. But playing with Mary, I really love how it’s part of her voice, not something extra. So, previously, I strived to make electronic sounds acoustically using different preparations as that was something I was earnestly exploring and now I feel ok incorporating electronics.”

“Jason, Tomas and Mary are incredible artists and I’m honored to have them as bandmates,” she says. “They’re always open to what I bring to them, and I’m always thinking about how can I best feature them. How can I create settings they can do something magical over? On this album I wanted it to sound like a gig or a show, instead of something for a recording, and they ran with it.”