Vernon Reid

Mistaken Identity (Sony/550)
by Clarendon Lavorich

Reid’s been through a lot, what with his flirtation with New York No Wave and a salacious funk affair with Living Colour. It seems that he’s no worse for the wear, though, ’cause this disc blends the two nicely – well, adequately. Sometimes he doesn’t go far enough in either direction, straddling the picket fence between intelligentsia and gut groove, and gets his testicles caught. However, his use of freakazoid clarinetist Don Byron takes the music far out enough to give it some spice.