In the low-lit confines of Jazz Alley, vocalist Ed Reed crooned his Love Stories to an enraptured audience on Wednesday evening, covering tunes from Judy Garland to Duke Ellington.  The Peck Allmond Quintet was the perfect compliment, with Allmond’s trumpet and flute solos interspersed in each song, and the quartet’s drum/base/piano combo was surprisingly versatile, gracefully weaving together big-band swinging melodies with melancholy blues.

At 79, Reed’s professional career has just begun, but singing has been his lifelong outlet, an outlet that helped him get through four stints in San Quentin and Folsom prisons on drug-related charges.  After successfully completing rehab, Reed was “discovered” several years ago at jazz camp by Peck Allmond, and the two have touring and playing together since.  Captivated by his personal history, Sound connected with Reed during his whirlwind tour for a few windows of time, during which he shared his story.

Sound: You’ve had one unconventional life. 

Ed Reed: (Laughs) That’s one way to put it.

Sound: Was there music in your childhood?

ER: My mom and father were both singers. Mother had classical training, but her mother didn’t want her singing but wanted her to marry my father, so she was an obedient daughter and gave up her ambition and dream.  But me and my mother sang all the time.

Sound: Why did you go into the army?

ER: My parents wanted me to go into the shoe shop business but I wanted to study elocution.  So I ran away up to St. Lewis and joined the army.  I was only there for nine weeks, for my basic training.  Then I was supposed to be shipped off to Korea, but I didn’t want to go, so I asked to be transferred.  They put all those kids on a boat and sent them over.  They were massacred.  They were a bunch of babies and the army put them in the front lines and they were massacred.

Sound: Where did you go?

ER: I was stationed in Oakland, I was working out on a boat in San Francisco Bay. That’s when I started using heroin, and I went to prison for that.  But that’s where I really got into jazz.  A lot of great jazz players came through; using was part of jazz culture then. I met Ralph Bravo there, who was the greatest guitar player I ever heard. He later died of an overdose, but when he and I got together, we really started swinging. Dexter Gordon and Frank Butler were other musicians who came through. We were part of the warden’s band. The warden would do tours of the prison and then he would have a dinner and music, so I always sang for that. 

Sound: When did you meet your wife?

In ’68. We’ve been together for forty years now, off and on. We divorced but got remarried; she didn’t want to deal with my debt, and heroin use. But it’s always been her, for me.