Randy Porter, piano
Robb Fisher, bass
Akira Tana, drums
Anton Schwartz, tenor sax

“His deft handling of ‘Some Other Time,’ ‘Inside a Silent Tear,’ ‘End of a Love Affair’ and the title track suggest hard-earned wisdom, stylistically harkening back to the elegant tenderness of Johnny Hartman while also echoing the intuitiveness of Jon Hendriks... He shapes a richly insightful ‘Old Country’ ... and serves up immaculately earnest readings of ‘She's Funny That Way,’ ‘Never Kiss and Run’ and ‘You’re Looking at Me.’ Most intensely moving are Reed’s hypnotic rendering of Abbey Lincoln’s mystically erudite ‘Throw It Away’ and his joyful wade through the sweetly optimistic ‘All My Tomorrows.’ —JazzTimes (Vox) July/August 2011

“Reed has developed a jazz voice that is distinct, full of the pain, sorrow, love and beauty that go along with taking that long, hard trail through life. All of that is on full display here. When Ed Reed sings... look for an intimate story every time. On Born To Be Blue, he tells these stories through songs like Nat Adderley’s ‘Old Country’ and other chestnuts like ‘She’s Funny That Way’ and ‘Monk’s Dream.’ But when he sings Abbey Lincoln’s ‘Throw It Away,’ he establishes a connection to the lyrics and phrasing of the Hall of Fame artist that is both beautiful and uncanny. Born To Be Blue is the kind of record that makes you happy that this life offers people more than one chance to offer their gift to the world.” —DownBeat (Editor’s Pick), July 2011

“Since recording his first album at the age of 78, the longtime Richmond resident has taken his rightful place as one of jazz’s most keenly observant singers, a balladeer with a fine-grained baritone who turns familiar standards into wrenching tales. Over the years there have been several dozen jazz artists who returned to the limelight after long stretches in obscurity, but Reed is that rarest of cases, a musician who has come into his own late in life. And with every performance he seems to make up for lost time. Given his track record of exponential creative growth over the past four years it might be premature to say that Born to Be Blue is Reed’s definitive statement, but his third album possesses all the distilled emotion and narrative coherence of a jazz masterpiece. In essence, he shows how the little boy pictured on the cover put himself through hell on the way to becoming a singular artist and a whole human being.” –Andrew Gilbert, Mercury News, July 21, 2011