Reuben "River" Reeves (October 25, 1905 in

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...

– September 1975 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

trumpeter and bandleader. Reeves started out playing locally in the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

; he moved to

in 1924 and then to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1925. In 1926 he joined

Erskine Tate Erskine Tate (January 14, 1895, Memphis, Tennessee, – December 17, 1978, Chicago) was an American jazz violinist and bandleader. Tate moved to Chicago in 1912 and was an early figure on the Chicago jazz scene, playing with his band, the Ven ...

's orchestra, then played with

Fess Williams Fess Williams ''(né'' Stanley R. Williams; April 10, 1894 – December 17, 1975) was an American jazz musician.''Biography Index, A Cumulative Index to Biographical Material in Books and Magazines, Volume 10: September 1973 — August 1976'', Ne ...

and

Dave Peyton Dave Peyton (19 August 1889 – 30 April 1955) was an American songwriter, pianist, arranger, orchestra leader, and music critic columnist for the ''Chicago Defender''. Peyton first began as a pianist in the trio of Wilbur Sweatman, along wit ...

(1928–1930). While in Chicago, he took lessons from a German trumpet player, Albert Cook, who played in the Chicago Symphony. While playing at the Regal Theater in 1929, Peyton featured Reeves, his hot trumpet player, on a night where Louis Armstrong, who had a gig across the street at the Savoy, performed as a guest. The "vicious" gesture from Peyton in an attempt to intimidate Armstrong did not work as the audience begged Armstrong to play five encores. He signed to

Vocalion Vocalion Records is an American record company and label. History The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pianos and organs, as Aeolian-Vocalion; the company also sold phonographs under the Vocalion name. "Aeolian" was ...

and recorded as a bandleader with his groups the Tributaries and the River Boys; among his sidemen were his brother, trombonist Gerald Reeves, and clarinetist

Omer Simeon Omer Victor Simeon (July 21, 1902 – September 17, 1959) was an American jazz clarinetist. He also played soprano, alto, and baritone saxophone and bass clarinet. Biography The son of a cigar maker, Omer Simeon was born in New Orleans, Louisian ...

(20 sides were recorded in 1929). He played under

Cab Calloway Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, conductor and dancer. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalist ...

in 1931-32, and recorded again with the River Boys in 1933. He toured as a leader from 1933–35, then played freelance through the late 1930s. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he led an

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

band called the Jungleers. Stationed at the Army Jungle Training Center on the northeast coast of Oahu, they were popular participants in Battle of the Band competitions that were an integral part of the "extraordinary music scene in Hawaii during the war." Albright, Alex. ''The Forgotten First: B-1 and the Integration of the Modern Navy,'' Fountain, NC: R.A. Fountain, 2013: 115-116. After the war, he played in

Harry Dial Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

's Blusicians in 1946. Reeves' entire output as a bandleader has been released to a single

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

by RST Records.

References

Scott Yanow Scott Yanow (born October 4, 1954) is an American jazz reviewer, historian, and author.Allmusic Biography/ref> Biography Yanow was born in New York City and grew up near Los Angeles. Since 1974, he was a regular reviewer of many jazz styles an ...

, Reuben Reevesat

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reeves, Reuben 1905 births 1975 deaths American jazz trumpeters American male trumpeters American jazz bandleaders Musicians from Indiana 20th-century American musicians 20th-century trumpeters 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians The Cab Calloway Orchestra members