Vernon Reid is probably best known for his guitar work with Living Colour in the late 80’s, and specifically for the Grammy Award winning song “Cult of Personality.” Reid proved himself an incredibly talented rock/metal guitarist on “Cult of Personality,” and although formal recognition wasn’t necessary, Rolling Stone named Reid #66 on their Top 100 guitarists list. So, naturally when I saw that Reid was playing at The Stone, I was psyched.

The Stone is a small club on far East 2nd Street, and it is purely dedicated to music, with no drinks or food sold. Reid filled the Stone, but that was not difficult seeing as there were only around 25 seats available. Although the blurb in Time Out said the show was Vernon, unaccompanied, there was also a keyboardist (Leon Gruenbaum), bassist (Steve Jenkins) and drummer (Don Mackenzie) playing with him. This group together is called Masque, and they have released two albums.

Twenty-five minutes after the 10:00 starting time Mackenzie appeared out of the bathroom and the group launched into an improvisational free-jazz inspired piece that consisted of Reid playing incredibly fast up and down the neck with no apparent structure, hence the free-jazz. Mackenzie held this piece together as Reid and Gruenbaum played synchronized howling melodies. This song melded into the next one with barely time for applause in between. They had less than an hour to play because of the Stone’s close proximity to apartments, so Reid was eager to get as much music in as possible. The only breaks they took were really for Mackenzie to search for a drum key, which he never did end up finding. Everything about Reid seemed to be youthful, from his energetic playing to his easy smile and demeanor. Reid sang a great extended cover of Hendrix’s Are You Experienced? while the keyboardist looked quite bored playing the same two notes over and over. Mackenzie and Reid had great interaction throughout the show, sharing the same awesome level of energy and making rhythmic changes perfectly in synch. Jenkins proved his prowess on the bass with long solo as Reid took a much deserved pause.

Vernon Reid and his Masque group graced the Stone with a set that seemed to fly by in no time at all. Reid was playing a custom made Parker Fly, a futuristic looking guitar, which according Parker’s website is the aptly named “top secret SciFly.” The mixture of blues, funk, rock and jazz music that Masque played was too short, but awesome nonetheless. If you are so inclined, you may follow Vernon on Twitter; he has become a self proclaimed “twitter addict,” much to his chagrin. If you must, his Twit name is vurnt22.