Guitar:“Wednesday Funk”, “The harder we fight (the sweeter the love)”
Reggie and I met when Fred Wesley asked me to join his band in 2009 for some gigs in the Netherlands and France. I fell in love with his playing instantly. He’s an incredible rhythm guitar player, constantly working on finding the spaces and making it even more funky all the time, glueing it together, constantly working on that band sound. Ears wide open and playing what’s needed. When it’s time to solo, he rocks it! Within playing what I think is jazzy funk or funky jazz with Fred, he adds some blues to it.
During that tour I got to stand next to him and I heard every single note. I almost would have wanted to sit down in the audience and watch him play but I had even the honor to play WITH him. Then I saw a Bobby Byrd show on tv, Bobby Byrd I unfortunately never saw live. So there's this concert video and I thought.. hey, that guitar player really looks and sounds like Reggie, and yes, it was him! here's a feature (at around 16min)
And he also has been playing with The S.O.S. Band since many years, and especially the last years since they are touring again. Here's not my favourite version but at least he's visible and announced clearly:
Reggie Ward Facebook Page "Reggie Ward (born in Albany, living in Atlanta, Georgia) has played with and recorded with some of the top entertainers in the business. This includes The S.O.S.Band, the legendary organist Mr. Jimmy Smith, Charlie Wilson (Gap Band), Speech (Arrested Development), Fred Wesley, Dallas Auston, Sleepy Brown, Organize Noize, Chante Moore, Kenny Latimore, and Darryl Simmons."
So the first time we played the music from Royalty For Real wasn't in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, but in Bengaluru and Mumbai, all the way in India in 2023!Here you'll see me play Au Privave, Classy Cats and Royalty For Real, together with Timothy Banchet (piano), Marius Beets (bass) and Sven Rozier (drums).Au Privave is a well-known blues by Charlie Parker which I often like to start with, almost like a soundcheck tune. Although most of the time a soundcheck is done I found out it's a good idea to play a tune everybody of the band knows very well so we all can get used to the sound of the stage, the presence of the audience and it also gives the sound engineer the chance to adjust microphones last minute. During the soundcheck, the sound of the room is significantly different because of the lack of audience. All that flesh and clothes work a little bit like a totally empty room versus a room with furniture and carpets, if you know what I mean :-)Acoustics are so interesting and full of surprises.. Anyways.. hope you like it! - Guitar:“Wednesday Funk”, “The harder we fight (the sweeter the love)”Reggie and I met when Fred Wesley asked me to join his band in 2009 for some gigs in the Netherlands and France. I fell in love with his playing instantly. He’s an incredible rhythm guitar player, constantly working on finding the spaces and making it even more funky all the time, glueing it together, constantly working on that band sound. Ears wide open and playing what’s needed. When it’s time to solo, he rocks it! Within playing what I think is jazzy funk or funky jazz with Fred, he adds some blues to it. During that tour I got to stand next to him and I heard every single note. I almost would have wanted to sit down in the audience and watch him play but I had even the honor to play WITH him.Then I saw a Bobby Byrd show on tv, Bobby Byrd I unfortunately never saw live. So there's this concert video and I thought.. hey, that guitar player really looks and sounds like Reggie, and yes, it was him! here's a feature (at around 16min)And he also has been playing with The S.O.S. Band since many years, and especially the last years since they are touring again.Here's not my favourite version but at least he's visible and announced clearly:Reggie Ward Facebook PageReggie Ward (born in Albany, living in Atlanta, Georgia) has played with and recorded with some of the top entertainers in the business. This includes The S.O.S.Band, the legendary organist Mr. Jimmy Smith, Charlie Wilson (Gap Band), Speech (Arrested Development), Fred Wesley, Dallas Auston, Sleepy Brown, Organize Noize, Chante Moore, Kenny Latimore, and Darryl Simmons.
