WKCR is excited to announce a special 24-hour broadcast for June 26th celebrating the 86th birthday of Reggie Workman (b.1937).

A truly visionary bassist, bandleader, composer, and educator, Reggie Workman's life in music began in his hometown of Philadelphia, whose vibrant music scene found him working and developing alongside fellow luminary musicians such as McCoy Tyner, Lee Morgan, and Archie Shepp. Following a stint in Freddy Cole's band, Workman moved to New York in 1958, where he was not only a key contributor to the bands of John Coltrane (1961) and Art Blakey (1962-1964), but a first-call bassist on the scene as a whole, recording with musicians such as Gigi Gryce, Wayne Shorter, Yusef Lateef, Roswell Rudd, and Herbie Mann, among others. In the following years, Workman remained a consummate sideman, powering bands such as those of Roy Brooks, Max Roach, Marion Brown, and Mal Waldron, but also established himself as a formidable and expansive bandleader, recording his first album Conversation in 1977 and founding/co-founding groups such as the The Super Jazz Trio, Top Shelf, Great Friends, Trio Transition, Trio 3, and The Reggie Workman Ensemble.

In addition to his numerous achievements as a performing musician, Workman has been an important educator and activist for decades, helping to found organizations such as Collective Black Artists in 1970 and MADLOM in 1990, formerly serving as the musical director for the New Muse Community Museum in Bed-Stuy, and serving as a professor at The New School since 1987, where he has taught musicians such as Robert Glasper, Roy Hargrove, and James Francies. For his contributions to music and society, Workman has been recognized as an NEA Jazz Master (2020), a Guggenheim fellow in music composition (2020), and awarded a Life Achievement Award by the Jazz Foundation of America (1997), among other accolades.

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