Reunald Jones
b. 22 December 1910, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, d. 1989. Jones came from a musical family; his father and two brothers were professional musicians and he was a cousin of Roy Eldridge. Jones played trumpet with various bands around Minneapolis in the late '20s; joined Speed Webb's noted territory band in 1930, and thereafter swung through many leading bands of the '30s and early '40s, notably those of Don Redman, Claude Hopkins, Chick Webb, Jimmie Lunceford and Duke Ellington. In 1952 he joined Count Basie, playing lead trumpet until 1957. He subsequently played with Woody Herman and spent several years working in studio bands, a period which included stints backing Nat ‘King’ Cole on television and playing with Gene Ammons. A strikingly good lead trumpeter, Jones seldom attracted attention, unless it was as a result of a calculatedly casual habit he adopted while with Basie of playing with one hand in his pocket. His few recorded solos included some with Chick Webb, Let's Get Together and When Dreams Come True, and Swingin' With The Fat Man with Redman.