vernon reid, “time”
from: Known unknown, 2004
For guitar players “shredding” refers to sustained passages of extremely fast runs. John McLaughlin and Eddie Van Halen can (or could) shred with feeling and in context, enhancing the experience of the song. Others seem to use shredding as an athletic display of skill.
Vernon Reid can shred just as nice as you please, but all his playing is infused with soulfulness: his shred is like Charlie Parker’s flights and John Coltranes “sheets of sound” — expressions of freedom in music.
(Vernon gets the writing credit, but this is pretty obviously an instrumental take on Sly Stone’s song of the same name from There's a Riot Goin' On.)
-Charlie Blaum-
