Dennis Rea

Dennis Rea (born July 7, 1957) is an American guitarist, author, and music event organizer. He was a member of the electronic rock group Earthstar in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He leads the progressive rock quintet Moraine and worked with Jeff Greinke in Land. Other significant involvements have included Flame Tree, Identity Crisis, Iron Kim Style, Savant, Stackpole, Tempered Steel, and Zhongyu.

Rea has collaborated with Hector Zazou, Bill Rieflin and Trey Gunn of King Crimson, Hawkwind cofounder Nik Turner, Chinese rock musician Cui Jian, drummer Han Bennink, Tuvan throat singers Albert Kuvezin and Saylik Ommun, and Mexican experimental duo Cabezas de Cera. He has appeared on more than 40 recordings to date on labels including MoonJune, Sky, RVNG Intl., Light in the Attic, First World, Extreme, C/Z, Purple Pyramid, Materiali Sonori, and Palace of Lights. He has performed throughout the U.S. and in China, Russia, Tuva, Germany, the UK, Taiwan, and Mexico.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Rea collaborated with many notable Chinese musicians. He was one of the first Western musicians to record an album for the state-owned China Record Corporation.

His activities in East Asia are detailed in his book Live at the Forbidden City: Musical Encounters in China and Taiwan. He is a co-organizer of the annual Seaprog festival and several concert series. For more than a decade he helped organize the Seattle Improvised Music Festival.

Early years Rea was motivated to start playing guitar at the age of nine or ten by Mike Nesmith of The Monkees. Two albums that had a big impact on him were In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson and the soundtrack for 2001: A Space Odyssey by György Ligeti.

Other influences include Soft Machine, Gentle Giant, Henry Cow, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, AACM, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Oregon, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Morton Subotnick. As a guitarist, his influences include John Abercrombie, Larry Coryell, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Terje Rypdal, and Ralph Towner. Beginning in 1983 he lived in New York City for three years and was involved with the Downtown music scene. Returning to Seattle in the late 1980s, he performed with avant-rock bands (notably Color Anxiety and Fred) and became involved in free improvisation with Wally Shoup, Bill Horist, and Stuart Dempster. In 1988 he helped organize the first Seattle Improvised Music Festival. During the same year, he served as the title character's "sonic alter ego" in the film Shredder Orpheus.

Between 1989 and 1996 Rea spent several years in China and Taiwan, playing over 100 concerts at cultural centers, universities, conservatories, expatriate bars, religious celebrations, on radio, television, and in sports arenas with the Chinese pop star Zhang Xing. His 1990 solo album Shadow in Dreams for the state-run China Record Corporation sold 40,000 copies and was cited among the year's ten best releases by Party organ China Youth Daily. While abroad he organized three unofficial concert tours of China by progressive Western bands (Identity Crisis, The Vagaries, and Land), playing more than 40 concerts in Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macau, plus a performance at the 1991 Sichuan China International TV Festival viewed by a TV audience estimated in the hundreds of millions. He has performed with Cui Jian, Wang Yong, Liu Yuan, Liang Heping, He Yong, ADO, and Cobra. He has written about Chinese and other Asian music in CHIME, the Routledge Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture, and the Routledge History of Social Protest in Popular Music. His adventures as a foreign musician in the Far East are chronicled in his memoir Live at the Forbidden City: Musical Encounters in China and Taiwan.

Returning to Seattle in the mid-1990s, Rea worked with Land, formed by Jeff Greinke, a musician Rea met in Seattle in the early 1980s. The band has included trumpeter Lesli Dalaba, bassist Fred Chalenor, drummers Bill Rieflin and Greg Gilmore, and Chapman stick player George Soler.

Rea's ongoing involvements as of 2024 include Moraine, Vaalbara, Reaven Trio, Tempered Steel, Threshold Quartet, Ben McAllister's Guitar Cult, and solo acoustic performances.

Awards and honors Rea has been awarded grants for his musical activities by the U.S. Department of State (Fulbright-Hays program), Arts International Fund for U.S. Artists Abroad, Seattle Arts Commission, King County Arts Commission, Malcolm S. Morse Foundation, Jack Straw Foundation, and the Washington State China Relations Council.

Discography As leader or co-leader 1990: Shadow in Dreams 2004: Free Touching: Live in Beijing at Keep in Touch with Han Bennink, Wang Yong, Andreas Schreiber, Steffen Schorn, Claudio Puntin, Lesli Dalaba 2010: Views from Chicheng Precipice (Moonjune) 2012: Subduction Zone with Wally Shoup and Tom Zgonc 2016: Black River Transect: Dennis Rea Tanabata Ensemble in Concert 2021: Giant Steppes (Moonjune)

As sideman With Alex's Hand 2014: Alex's Hand Presents: The Roaches

With Eric Apoe

1996: Songs of Love and Doom 2000: Dream Asylum 2002: Radioation 2005: Book of Puzzles 2008: The Man in the Sun 2019: Lost in Oddball Alley 2021: Some Kinda Good News 2024: Spectator

With Axolotl 2024: Flight of the Grackle: Live at I-Spy 7.24.2000

With Roland Barker, Amy Denio, and Bill Rieflin 2014: Shredder Orpheus Soundtrack

With Marc Barreca 1983, 2016: Music Works for Industry

With Chekov 2008: Born to be Quiet 2024: Breakfast in Euphonia?

With Peter Comley Sedna Ensemble 2021: Sedna

With the Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra 2014: Gimme Some Sugar, Baby!

With Earthstar 1978: Salterbarty Tales 1979: French Skyline 1981: Atomkraft? Nein, Danke! 2024: Sleeper, the Nightlifer 2024: Collected Works

With Roberto Fedriga 2024: La Mia Malattia

With Flame Tree 2016: Flame Tree

With Craig Flory and Doug Haire 1998: Wigwam Bendix

With Jeff Greinke 1994: Big Weather 1998: Swimming 2013: Scenes from a Train

With Doug Haire 1992: Locale

With Identity Crisis 2021: Banished Souls: The Lost 1991 China Record Company Sessions 2021: Rogue Province: The Lost 1991 Taipei Sessions

With Iron Kim Style 2010: Iron Kim Style

With Land 1995: Land 1997: Archipelago 2001: Road Movies

With Moraine 2009: Manifest Density 2011: Metamorphic Rock 2014: Groundswell

With Ed Petry 2021: Duwamps Duets: Ed Petry Remembered With Red Fable 2021: Red Fable With Savant 1983: The Neo-Realist (At Risk) 2016: Artificial Dance With Wally Shoup 2024: briefcase featuring Wally Shoup 2024: Wally Shoup 2x4tet With Stackpole 2001: Stackpole With Tempered Steel 2012: Tempered Steel With Threshold 2024: Threshold With Ting Bu Dong 2008: Ting Bu Dong With Rik Wright 2000: Bleeding Laughter With Hector Zazou 2003: Strong Currents With Zhongyu 2016: Zhongyu