Pianist Eric Reed Is Still Just ‘Trying to Swing’ : Jazz: Wynton Marsalis noticed the young musician at a young age. ‘Now, I’m the veteran in the rhythm section,’ says Reed, who’s also focusing on his own trio.

At the tender age of 21, pianist Eric Reed, had held and left one of the most coveted positions in jazz--that as the keyboardist in trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ band.

“It’s not that I didn’t like playing with Wynton,” Reed explained. “I just wasn’t real crazy about the music he was starting to play.

“He was doing more standards, digging up his roots, playing close to his ties in New Orleans. I wasn’t at a point where I wanted to deal with the music he was playing, I wasn’t hearing it. I wanted to play some good hot swing.”

But Reed stayed in touch with Marsalis and, after a year, was coaxed back into the fold.

The pianist, now 24, has been a fixture in the trumpeter’s various bands for the last two years. When Marsalis dissolved his septet last December, Reed remained as a member of his touring quartet.

“Now, I’m the veteran in the rhythm section,” says the pianist who, as a teen-ager, was encouraged by Marsalis to sit on stage and observe Marcus Roberts, who was then the band’s keyboardist. “Now I’m the one who holds it all together.”

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And as for his differences with Marsalis’ direction? “I don’t really see that much difference between us today. Wynton got the head-start, because of his age, but we’re basically interested in the same things. We’re out there just trying to swing.”

That intangible quality, swing, is central to Reed’s pursuit of a solo career. His 1993 MoJAZZ recording, “It’s All Right to Swing,” featured the pianist’s rhythm-rich style in a program of blues, funk and gospel-influenced tunes designed to showcase his considerable keyboard skills. His new MoJAZZ release, “The Swing and I,” concentrates more on Reed’s originals, with short, to the point, rhythm exercises such as the groove-heavy “Felix the Cat” matched with the longer, more ambitious, three-section piece “The Gemini Suite.” Music from both albums will be represented when Reed’s trio plays Ambassador Auditorium Monday night.

This progression from player of standards and post-bop-styled jazz pieces to serious composer mirrors Marsalis’ own development. And Reed recognizes the parallel.

“It’s really been a blessing to have been with Wynton and to have seen so many sides of him. I can’t think of another musician who’s as multidimensional. He’s really affected my thinking quite a bit. I still like to play tunes that burn, but I’m thinking more and more of my development, of moving forward and getting into composing more.”

Reed began playing the piano at the age of 6 in his minister-father’s church in Philadelphia. Though he spent his first 11 years in that jazz-rich city, he didn’t have much exposure to live performance.

“Almost all of my early influences came from hearing pianists in church and listening to records,” he explains. “I had Ramsey Lewis’ ‘The Sound of Christmas.’ That and Art Blakey ‘Live at the Cafe Bohemia.’ I pretty much absorbed all of Ramsey’s record. It connected with the things inside me, and related to everything I was playing in church.”

He was 14 and living in Los Angeles when he first met Marsalis. The trumpeter singled out the young pianist during a workshop at the USC-affiliated Community School of the Performing Arts (now the R. D. Kolburn School of Music). “At that point, I hadn’t had much of a relationship with musicians who were close to my own age. When I played gigs, most of the cats were in their 30s and 40s. Wynton was 25. I could relate to him.”

Though still in high school, Reed played locally with trumpeter Clora Bryant and bandleader Gerald Wilson. And he stayed in touch with Marsalis. “He would call me from around the world. He sent me records. The effect was pretty incredible.”

Reed began substituting in the Marsalis band when he was only 18, and began working regularly with the trumpeter in 1990.

Now that Marsalis is cutting back on his performance schedule to pursue other projects, Reed is concentrating on writing and performing with his own trio. And, like Marsalis, he’s delving into classical music, as well as the jazz tradition, in an attempt to broaden his sense of composition.

“I love the Bach partitas, the Beethoven sonatas, the Chopin etudes, the Rachmaninoff piano concertos, the Prokofiev violin concerto. I’m heavily influenced by (Duke) Ellington and (Charles) Mingus, two composers who were in the habit of writing long pieces. And lately, in Wynton’s band, I’ve had more of an exposure to bigger pieces. Now I’m trying to figure out a way to write a longer piece that’s constantly swinging, not just in the usual ride pattern, but in that feeling of swing. That’s the essence of jazz.”

* The Eric Reed Trio with bassist Rodney Whitaker and drummer Gregory Hutchinson plays Ambassador Auditorium, 300 W. Green St., Pasadena; Monday, 8 p.m. $12. (800) 266-2378 .