While not as well known as classic jazz trombonists
Kid Ory or
Dicky Wells, this artist took part in many of the same sort of historic recording sessions, particularly in reference to the brilliant, innovative ensemble music of pianist, bandleader, and composer
Jelly Roll Morton.
Gerald Reeves was also a sidekick of clarinetist
Johnny Dodds. Basically, it is sides with
Dodds and/or
Morton that provide the walls, floor, and ceiling of this trombonist's discography, still leaving a room for a brother band of sorts, the trombonist both performing and recording in a combo co-led in 1927 and 1928 by trumpeter
Reuben Reeves and reed player
Omer Simeon.
Whether there was sibling rivalry in this relationship is not known; however, an anti-trombone faction has chosen to take up a remarkable if not too terribly interesting detail regarding both the brothers
Reeves and
Reese. While only the trembling hand of a typist could succeed in actually connecting them, there were pairs of brass-playing brothers in both families and in each case the trumpeter stayed much busier on the music scene than the trombonist. Trombonist Arthur Reese, for example, cut only one record as opposed to more than a dozen with brother
Rostelle Reese. The fact that the surnames of
Reese and
Reeves appear side by side in the alphabetical choices of critic
John Chilton for inclusion in his Who's Who in Jazz is furthermore supposed to indicate the unbridled regularity with which trumpets conquer trombones, at least in the music business scheme of things.
–
Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi