Out today (5 June) is Spectrum Road, the self-titled debut album by a new supergroup of sorts, one which features Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid, former Cream bassist-singer Jack Bruce, Medeski Martin and Wood keyboardist John Medeski and onetime-Lenny Kravitz drummer (and Carlos Santana's wife) Cindy Blackman Santana.

The band will be hitting the road this summer (their first gig is at Bonnaroo, 9 June). Before starting rehearsals, Reid sat down with MusicRadar to talk about how Spectrum Road came together.

Were you looking to form a new band?

“I wasn’t really, no. But I was playing with Jack Bruce, and I asked him about Tony Williams – Jack had a history with Tony and played with him in Lifetime – and we realized that we had a story to tell with this kind of music. I really admire Tony and how he mixed rock and jazz. So Jack and I kept talking and we started looking for a cast of characters to join us on this journey.”

“I spoke to Cindy because she’s such an unapologetic devotee of Tony. Of course, she’s a brilliant musician, too, so it made a lot of sense of do this with her.

“Then I reached out to John because he’s so kooky and so quirky and so… odd. [laughs] There aren’t a lot of kick-ass organists out there. John’s kick-ass all the way. He takes quirky and makes it hard and emotional.”

You can listen to the track Vuelta Abajo by Spectrum Road right here.