A few months ago, we told you about Spectrum Road, the new jazz-rock/fusion supergroup formed by Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid and Cream bassist-singer Jack Bruce.
The band, which also features drummer Cindy Blackman Santana (wife of guitar icon Carlos Santana) and keyboardist John Medeski (of Medeski Martin and Wood), have announced that their self-titled debut LP will be released 5 June through Palmetto Records.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Reid said that Spectrum Road is "definitely a jazz-rock thing but it has a rock edge, because one of the architects of modern rock is in the band and he's singing these tunes.
"It's kind of an odd combination of jazz-rock as we know it. John Medeski is such an odd keyboardist and so quirky, and one of the beautiful things is his use of the Mellotron on the record, because the Mellotron is not associated with jazz-rock and fusion to a large degree. It's more associated with King Crimson, Yes and the Moody Blues. It gives the thing a different feel and sonic signature."
As to how the band formed, Reid said, "It started when I was touring with Jack Bruce in Europe -this is in the shadow of 9/11. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, we were having a really good time... And I remember asking Jack about his life, about what Cream was like to Hendrix and about [jazz drummer] Tony Williams... The combination of rock and jazz... I thought of Cindy Blackman, because I've done stuff with her, and I thought of John Medeski, because John is the man. And eight years later, we wound up doing it."
Spectrum Road will be playing shows this summer. Among their dates will be a performance at Bonnaroo on 9 June.
