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Alabama Music Office.com goes to Kirkwood By The River in Birmingham, Alabama to attend a performance by Ray Reach and Company with special guest Pericles Emmanuel. The performers were Ray Reach (Piano/Vocals), Pericles Emmanuel (Vocals), Dave Amaral (Saxophone/Flute/Clarinet), Abe Becker (Bass), Michael Glaser (Drums) and Brent McCullough (Recording Engineer).
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As a practicing professional musician of some 40+ years, Raymond E. Reach (or just plain Ray, as he prefers to be called) lives an unusually diverse musical life. Ray has kept both feet firmly planted in two musical worlds - always having one foot in academia and the other in what he calls, the “real world” of professional music. From September 1998 until August 2005, Ray was Director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Jazz Ensemble. He is currently Director of Student Jazz Programs at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame (www.jazzhall.com). In addition, Ray produces jazz and classical recordings and directs the Magic City Jazz Orchestra, a recording and concert Big Band composed of some of the best jazz players Alabama has to offer.

In the late 1960s, Reach served as studio musician (guitar, piano and organ) at recording studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and Birmingham, Alabama, while playing in various pop and rock groups. His aspirations of becoming a rock star were soon discouraged by his contact with the crazy, drug-and-alcohol-driven life styles of many of the pop stars with whom he was working. “I made a conscious decision that this was not the way I wanted to live,” said Ray. “Academia seemed like a much better choice.” So he resolved to finish his academic degree work in music and teach.

Reach has taught music on the secondary and college levels in both the choral and instrumental fields. The colleges which he has attended for music degree work and further musical study include Birmingham-Southern College, the University of Montevallo, the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Eastman School of Music, The University of North Texas and others. In addition, he has taught Jazz Improvisation, Jazz History, arranging and Computer Music courses at a number of colleges and universities, including all of the abovenamed institutions as well as Richland Community College (Dallas, Texas), Cedar Valley College (Dallas, Texas) and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (1998 - 2005).