Rising Stars: Meet Tim Reid, Jr.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim Reid, Jr.

Hi Tim, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I discovered my passion and purpose in life at a very early age, born and raised close to Cleveland, OH. Some of my very earliest memories of joy and satisfaction came while on a stage or sitting at the piano, or listening to my father’s vinyl records in the early ’80s. I was 4 years old when I began tinkering on the piano in my home, which was used by my mother to teach piano lessons (and still is today – almost 40 years later!). She had graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1975 and married my father, who was graduating from The University of Notre Dame that same spring.

The two of them had met at a summer music camp held in Berea, OH – at Baldwin Wallace (where dad would later earn his MBA). They fell madly in love as teenagers at a music camp and married two weeks out of college. They were in their early 30s when my sister and I would be carted along to community theater rehearsals in North Ridgeville, OH, not just as kids without babysitters, but as cast members in almost every production my parents would be involved with. Our childhoods were full of performing: singing, acting, dancing, improvising, and seeking that beautiful sound of approval, laughter, and applause.

I followed my sister Ginny, (two years older than me) to Millikin University, in Decatur, IL the fall of 1998, and graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in 2002, with an emphasis in Commercial Music. Although I had been accepted to continue academic life for a Master’s degree in Vocal Jazz at The University of North Texas, I had very little drive to stay in school. Instead, I moved to Chicago in August of 2002. I lived in Chicago from 2002 to 2010, and in those 8 years would find work as a musician in an incredibly wide range of styles and settings. In 2006, I joined an independent touring band based in Chicago, 56 Hope Road.

We played roughly 220 shows a year, and Kansas City was a consistent market. I fell in love with a promoter and friend of the band who was a primary contact for booking and all things in this region, and fast began spending free time in Kansas City rather than my home in Chicago. So my Kansas City music roots began in 2006 with 56 Hope Road, and I appreciated what I knew of the music community in this city. We were married in 2009 and decided to try Southern California to join her parents in a couple of business ventures, including a full-service recording studio in Santa Ana, CA. I partnered with my father-in-law, drummer and well-known figure in Kansas City, recently deceased.

While SoCal (Orange County & LA) had its perks, the arrival of our second child had us looking fondly back to the midwest and the culture/cost of living that looked more like what the two of us grew up with. By the summer of 2019, we were officially out of California and I found myself a resident of KCMO. Although the marriage didn’t make it with the relocation, I’m grateful to have our children in this environment, and as long as my kids are here in KC, I won’t consider any other place “home.” During the summer of 2020, in the heat of the pandemic, I quit my day gig, a profession that had developed over approximately 10 years, and decided to put full-time resources into performing and creating music.

I now have residencies at four locations: Mondays at Piano Room in Waldo (with Waldo Jazz Collective), Tuesdays at Eddie V’s in the Plaza, Wednesdays at The Phoenix downtown (both of those as Tim Reid, Jr. Trio) and 1st & 3rd Thursdays at The Chaz on the Plaza with a duo. You can see me regularly at four B&B Theatres locations including Johnnie’s Jazz Bar & Grille downtown and in Liberty, plus a whole slew of other great restaurants in JoCo and all around. I have a lot of fun playing private events alongside some of my favorite musicians with high-quality outfits Lost Wax and KCFLO.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My road has had some very open, smooth sections, but probably the majority of my career has been at least a little bumpy. There have been some major sinkholes, poorly marked signage, and quite a few points along the road where it seemed like the only possible direction would be to turn around and go back to where I came from.

As often is the case, other mental health issues have run parallel, including anxiety and depression. Covid and divorce combined to create a perfect storm of isolation, and I often could only find optimism while entertaining thoughts of suicide. I’m not ever going to be fully recovered from any of my mental health conditions. I ask those reading to have compassion, become educated before rushing to judge those around you who are addicted to any number of substances that result in homelessness, crime, and an inability to experience love or true connection to other human beings.

If you are struggling with a chemical dependency or love someone who is, know that you’re not alone and now more than ever there are resources for those battling addiction and those who are left broken and bruised by the afflicted. (I am not a spokesperson nor do I specifically endorse any treatment facility or treatment option).

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am full-time independent music professional. For me, that includes PERFORMER (vocalist, piano/keyboards, guitar), CREATOR (songwriter, producer, arranger), TECHNICIAN (sound production, both live and in-studio), and private INSTRUCTOR in all of the above, but most of my students are currently piano students.

I’m most proud of my ability to keep going, and actually excel in a brand-new community in the midst of intense personal turmoil. Despite heavy grief and feelings of not belonging, I’ve been increasingly invited to share music that can help people in the many ways music heals, lifts distracts, emphasizes, and brings about change in our current era. I’m proud to have shared a stage with countless incredible people just in the last year here in KC, and there’s a growing list of hopeful collaborators in the future.

Something a little different about me than most of my music colleagues is that I recently earned a Master’s degree in Pastoral Theology from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, officially finished while living here in KC. I love asking the bigger questions and wrestling with the nature of our purpose and existence, as thousands and thousands of great thinkers have wrestled with (and written libraries upon libraries of debate upon). My experience in pastoral work within a faith community has made me a better musician and more understanding of the difficulties all people have.

It’s too easy to make unfair judgments of others within our community in a culture that seems to require more and more labels and boxes to check. If we can get past the obsession with creating and re-creating labels of identity, I’ve found that I can learn something from just about any human I encounter. But I get caught up in fear and prejudice just like anyone else. Answering questions like this help me to check myself and make sure I’m doing what I can to remain humble, open, and grateful.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Live entertainment disappeared, but people found a way to be connected and entertain in a different way. The live stream performance became a way for artists to be even more intimate with their fans, but I feared people would accept a far lesser quality experience – and maybe even forget the thrill of physically live entertainment. People are coming back to clubs, and artists are selling tickets and touring again, but it’s a percentage of what we were all accustomed to before COVID. We must of course remain committed to health and safety for ourselves and our families, just as was our obligation before the big shut down.

As we inch toward a sense of what life was like pre-Covid, it’s obvious the way we consume performance art has permanently been altered. One could say that we now have more options, and more opportunities to connect with a limitless audience through the now common Livestream performance. The market has spoken, and it means an obligation as a creator to find ways to serve the people who are going to be staying in on a Thursday night but still want to feel that special connection to an independent artist. There are more and growing opportunities to monetize art, but it can seem overwhelming at times.

With the popularity of Tik Tok and Youtube for the non-professional entertainer to captivate a massive audience, it can sometimes feel as if the bar for greatness in the performing arts is ever sinking lower. But there’s just as much innovation and collaboration of greatly skilled creators, and it’s more accessible to more people — so it’s important to nurture the quality and awe-inspiring creative art in the virtual marketplace.

I personally hope we can keep on a steady path toward inviting everyone back out to experience the feeling of standing ten feet away from a stage with a man or woman doing something that you see with your eyes and hear with your ears, completely baffled at how what your seeing is making the sound you’re hearing… and the palpable electricity that fills the heart and mind with hope and joy and comfort.

There will be no end to the entertainment industry and no replacement for the thrill of observing something inspirational and having the thought — “maybe I can do that.” Is it possible for this to happen by clicking a link and watching a 60-second clip? yes… but the impact of witnessing something live and in the same physical space that blows your mind is undeniably way more powerful. So — more of that, please.

Pricing:

• $50/hour private lessons
• $30/half hour lessons
• Available for Private Events, please contact me to discuss pricing!

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: timreidjr.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timreidjr/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TimReidJr/