Living Colour

Formed by English-born guitarist Vernon Reid, Living Colour grew out of the Black Rock Coalition, a non-profit co-founded by Reid, for black musicians wanting to play rock and roll. Living Colour’s early musical excursions were an experimental mix of instrumental tangents, jazz jams, funk fusions and punk rock attacks, in contrast to their later major label releases.

Living Colour’s line-up became a fixture in 1986 consisting of Vernon Reid, vocalist Corey Glover, Muzz Skillings on bass, and Berklee College of Music graduate Will Calhoun on drums. Performing regularly and honing their skills the band released their debut album “Vivid” on May 3, 1988, which became popular after MTV began playing the video for the song “Cult of Personality. The album charted well at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and led to performances on Saturday Night Live, a Grammy Award and a support slot on The Rolling Stones’ Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour.

With their second album “Time’s Up” failing to live up to the first the band played a show at Lollapalooza in 1991 and released an EP of outtake entitled “Biscuits” to raise their profile. After which Skillings left the group to be replaced by Doug Wimbish, whom with the help of released the ambitious “Stain”, which reached No. 26 in the U.S. charts.

With such a plethora of musical influences the band couldn’t agree on a single musical direction and disbanded in 1995. They returned five year later in 2000 and played a live show using Calhoun’s and Wimbish’s drum and bass project Head>>Fake in which Reid and Glover made appearances. Despite critical acclaim their Living Colour’s fourth studio album failed to chart, and Sony released a extensive career spanning best-of compilation titled “Everything Is Possible: The Very Best of Living Colour”.

In 2006 Living Colour including Skillings for the first time in 14 years played a party Jack DeJohnette threw for his wife, and followed the show with a week-long European tour. The band’s fifth full-length album “The Chair in the Doorway” was released in 2009 landing an No. 159 on the Billboard 200 and was followed by a worldwide tour.