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Vernon Reid Mistaken Identity (Epic, 1996)
reviewed by Micah Holmquist
January 4, 2000

A clock ticks at opening of the first track. Apparently it is now time for guitarist Vernon Reid and host of other musicians unleash the tidal wave of sounds that is Mistaken Identity. This is a disc full of grooves, samples, and musical blends. Reid has packed the disc with the playing of musical associates and homages to great musicians that influenced him. This is, by no means, retro music, however. When it looks to the past, it does so from what seems to be the future. Some things work and some don’t.

Reid is best known for confounding, along with journalist Greg Tate and a handful of like-minded musicians, the Black Rock Coalition in mid 1980s and as the key musical force in the group Living Colour. (1) Living Colour was an all black rock group that made hard rock with significant traces of jazz, blues, funk, and other styles that music fans and critics more closely associate with African Americans than they do rock. (2) The band produced that hopped these genres yet was still good rock by just about any standard. The "Living Colour touch" is certainly there as many of the guitar riffs sound like they are just waiting for Living Colour vocalist Corey Glover to jump in.

Living Colour disbanded in 1995 but this 1996 disc continues down the same path by taking the music further. It this odd Reid’s guitar playing -the centerpiece of Living Colour- is often the weak link on Mistaken Identity. Apparently there is a difference between a great rock guitarist and a great player in more adventurous styles. Reid plays in an unmoving and sterile fashion for most of the disc. Changes in meter and melody happen with great frequency here so Reid’s playing doesn’t really get repetitive.

It just seems unexciting. Unfortunately Reid’s guitar playing is regularly front and center and thus tends to detract from the music as a whole.

There are a couple of exceptions to this and, interestingly enough, both are tributes to other guitar players. On "Lightin’", presumably a tribute to Lightin’ Hopkins, Reid manages to get futuristic blues groove going. The playing changes significantly over the course of the track but in small increments. These gradual shifts reflect blues patterns even if they don’t sound like it at first. The finest guitar cut a tribute to Kurt Cobain by the name of "Saint Cobain." Reid does not comp a grunge feel so much as he expresses pure anger and energy. Appropriate and varied vocal samples situate the piece well.

Maybe the problem with Reid’s playing is just that his collaborators outshine him. Clarinetist Don Byron makes his presence known. Tracks like "Who are you? (Mutation)" and the title cut feature excellent soloing and plenty of Bryon’s trademark humor and style. "The Projects" begins with Byron just accenting the pulsating drum work of Curtis Watts but the clarinetist quickly and deliberately develops his playing into a full-blown solo. This is less "jazz" than most of Byron’s own records, but he still displays the same knack for coming out of nowhere with solos.

Watts and bass player Hank Schroy provide steady, if not standout, playing throughout Mistaken Identity. They deserve credit however as Reid’s ensemble also includes DJ Logic on the turntables and Leon Gruenbaum on the melodica. Both give the disc a much richer musical vocabulary and create sounds that the other musicians would be hard pressed to produce on their own. Doses of ambient and electronica appear at various places on the disc.

There are also some notable performances from guests such as oratory from people like Lawrence Fishburne and Sekou Sundiata. A number of musicians also make cameos. The most notable is Fred Hopkins who plays acoustic bass on "Who are you? (Mutation)."

There are some compositional missteps. Vocal samples regularly appear and usually help the pieces such "Mysterious Power" which uses Lydon Johnson saying "We shall overcome." It is unclear if the point is sincerity or cynicism but this question is probably the point. Less satisfying is the final cut "Unborne Embrace." There is musical backing but the centerpiece is a satirical put on of a commercial that points out how the entertainment industry constantly places demeaning and stereotypical images of African Americans in television shows and then calls it ethnic humor. The track was amusing the first couple of times but its appeal wears off after that. It is neither brilliant comedy nor good music.

These problems don’t take away from the central point of Mistaken Identity. Music needs to continue to progress and the only way that it can do that is through exploration. Exploration is what this disc is all about.

Notes

1) See http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palladium/8797/ for more on Reid’s background. An excellent unofficial Living Colour page is at http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/9892/

2) This association is not based on anything factual. Many of the earliest rock and roll performers were black as are a number of the genre’s innovators. Furthermore rock traces it roots directly from the blues, gospel music, and to a lesser extent jazz. Nobody can seriously question the African American influence on those genres. (Early rock music was greatly influenced by other genre and which is country, of course. Many have posited that rock and roll originated by the combination of (black) blues and gospel with (white) country music. Waylon Jennings provides one such anecdote in his excellent 1996 biography:

While it Jennings’ account is probably genuine, the fact is that black performers have always influenced country music. It is well document that the first major influence of Hank Williams, for instance, was black bluesman.

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