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Scott Reeves

Scott Reeves is a trombonist (specializing in the Eb alto flugelhorn and Eb alto valve trombone), as well as a composer and educator. He has performed at venues such as Birdland, the Village Vanguard, Smoke, the Iridium, Small’s, Dizzy’s, the 55 Bar, and the Knitting Factory with groups such as the Dave Liebman Big Band, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and the Chico O’Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. He has also performed in small group settings with Steve Wilson, Rich Perry, Kenny Werner, James Williams, Ron Carter, John Patitucci, Adam Cruz and Carl Allen. Scott has also performed as a guest artist at leading jazz clubs in Rome, Lisbon, Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto.

Scott performs on four CD’s with the Dave Liebman Big Band and has also recorded with the Anthony Braxton Orchestra and Bill Mobley's Smoke Big Band. He has four small group recordings under his own leadership and the 17-piece Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra has released two CDs documenting Scott's compositions and arrangements - “Portraits and Places” (2016) and “Without A Trace” (2018). His writing for big band was profiled in the August, 2018 edition of "Downbeat." Scott has also received writing commissions from the Dave Liebman Big Band, the Kyoto Jazz Orchestra and Osaka Global Orchestra (Japan), the Westchester Jazz Orchestra, Santa Cecilia Conservatory (Rome), Manhattan School of Music and other collegiate and professional ensembles.

In addition to his performing and writing activities, Scott was a full-time college professor for 40 years and is currently Professor Emeritus at The City College of New York. He previously taught at the Juilliard School of Music, the University of Southern Maine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Memphis State University and Western Washington University. His textbook on jazz improvisation, “Creative Jazz Improvisation” is widely used in collegiate jazz curriculums.

Awards

Shape Shifter was voted one of the top 10 CD's of 2009 by AAJ

Gear

Mirafone alto flugelhorn, Rath R100 & R4 trombones, self-designed alto valve trombone


Tags

1
Album Review

Erica Seguine: The New Day Bends Light

Read "The New Day Bends Light" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Impegnandosi nel ruolo di produttore, Darcy James Argue dà particolare considerazione al debutto discografico di quest'ensemble, fondato nel 2011 a New York dalle compositrici Erica Seguine e Shon Baker. La prima è anche arrangiatrice e guida dell'orchestra, la seconda entra nel cast come sassofonista. Dopo varie esibizioni in locali chiave della Big Apple, le due leader hanno selezionato sette composizioni originali dal loro repertorio, incidendole con un ampio organico comprendente talentuosi solisti della metropoli. Alcuni di essi ...

31
Album Review

Erica Seguine/Shon Baker Orchestra: The New Day Bends Light

Read "The New Day Bends Light" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The New Day Bends Light, the debut recording by the twelve-year-old Erica Seguine/Shon Baker Orchestra, is interesting on a number of levels, not the least of which is emotional. The leaders and their twenty-one piece ensemble are clearly committed to the music and do their best to breathe life into each of the album's seven numbers, three of which were written by Seguine, three by Baker and the other ("Ose Shalom") by Nurit Hirsh. Aside from that, there is the ...

6
Album Review

Scott Reeves: The Alchemist

Read "The Alchemist" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Trombonist, composer and band leader Scott Reeves once performed a live concert at the City College of New York with his then quintet, which has now been documented as his newest offering entitled The Alchemist. However, new is not the operative word here, as this musical event took place on May 5th, 2005. While concentrating on compositions and recordings for his jazz orchestra over the last ten years, the pandemic provided Reeves with the opportunity to review the music he ...

15
Album Review

Scott Reeves Quintet: The Alchemist

Read "The Alchemist" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Devastating as it has been, the global Covid-19 pandemic has produced a few upsides as well, one of which is the rediscovery by versatile Scott Reeves of a concert that his quintet performed sixteen years ago, in May 2005, at the City College of New York. With time on his hands as a result of the scarcity of gigs during the pandemic, Reeves visited his archives and found the recording, which he never intended to release owing to audio issues. ...

6
Album Review

Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra: Portraits and Places

Read "Portraits and Places" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Scott Reeves formed his splendid New York-based orchestra eight years ago, in 2008, and while Portraits and Places marks its recorded debut, Reeves spent a number of years before that sharpening his composing and arranging skills at the highly regarded BMI Jazz Composers Workshop where he received tutelage and counsel from Manny Albam, Mike Abene, Jim McNeely and Mike Holober, among others. Judging from the eight numbers presented here (three of which comprise the colorful L & T Suite), that ...

3
Live Review

Scott Reeves Quintet with Duane Eubanks: Nyack, NY, November 30, 2012

Read "Scott Reeves Quintet with Duane Eubanks: Nyack, NY, November 30, 2012" reviewed by David A. Orthmann


Scott Reeves Quintet with Duane EubanksNyack Library Carnegie RoomNyack, NYNovember 30, 2012There are a number of reasons why tribute concerts, a staple of today's live performance landscape, go awry. When an MC emits an endless stream of hyperbole, or offers a history lesson reminiscent of the ones that put high school students to sleep, it's going to be a long night. The inclusion of an otherwise capable musician who is stylistically incompatible with the rest ...

359
Live Review

Scott Reeves at Cecil's Jazz Club

Read "Scott Reeves at Cecil's Jazz Club" reviewed by David A. Orthmann


Scott Reeves Cecil's Jazz Club West Orange, NJ April 24, 2009

Scott Reeves's Shape Shifter (Miles High Records) is one of the year's pleasant surprises. Recorded live at Cecil's Jazz Club in March of 2008, the disc succeeds on a number of levels. Reeves's compositions are varied and substantial, ranging from hard bop and Latin oriented themes, to clever jazz-funk, to a French impressionist influenced piece, to a low key blues. His arrangements ...

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Recording

Recent Listening: Scott Reeves and others

Recent Listening: Scott Reeves and others

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra, Without A Trace (Origin) Reeves’ second big band album for Origin features players in the top level of New York musicians. Saxophonists Steve Wilson, Vito Chiavuzzo, Tim Armacost and Rob Middleton are among the impressive soloists, along with trombonist Matt Haviland, trumpeter Andy Gravish, pianist Jim Ridl, and Reeves on flugelhorn and trombone. In Reeves’ title tune Carolyn Leonhart’s vocal is cool, contained and flawlessly delivered, however mundane the lyric. She might profitably have also been ...

125

Performance / Tour

Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra at Tea Lounge on July 25th

Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra at Tea Lounge on July 25th

Source: Scott Reeves

After years of writing for Dave Liebman's Big Band, the Westchester Jazz Orchestra, Bill Mobley's Smoke Big Band, the BMI Jazz Composers Orchestra and the Cecil's Big Band, trombonist/composer Scott Reeves fronts his own 16-piece jazz orchestra featuring some of the best jazz musicians in New York City. Reeves has forged an original compositional style which All About Jazz describes as “varied and substantial, ranging from hard bop and Latin oriented themes...to French impressionist influences. His arrangements are restless, full ...

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SUMMARY OF REVIEWS OF SCOTT REEVES JAZZ ORCHESTRA “WITHOUT A TRACE”

DOWNBEAT, Suzanne Lorge, August, 2018 “The decades he spent playing and arranging for big bands under the direction of Dave Liebman and Bill Mobley taught Reeves how to work within the classic big band sound. But for his own group, the 17-piece Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra, he wanted to explore the dissonances and unexpected forms of contemporary jazz, emulating large ensembles like those of Jim McNeely and Gil Evans and fellow trombonist Bob Brookmeyer. Reeves arrives at his sound – modern metric ideas, sweetly stacked harmonies that move in surprising directions, atypical musical alliances – by utilizing the full scope of his playing experience. If he can’t play it, he doesn’t write it. His new album, “Without a Trace” – a more eclectic mix of tunes than 2016’s all-original “Portraits and Places” (Origin Records) – illustrates the success of this approach. How does he view his skills as a composer nowadays? “I’m still working at it,” he said, speculating that his best years yet lie ahead.”

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Primary Instrument

Trombone

Location

New York City

Credentials/Background

Professor Emeritus - City College of New York. Former Professor - Julliard School, University of Southern Maine, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Memphis, Western Washington University.

Clinic/Workshop Information

Clinics on arranging and improvisation. Clinics have been given in Rome, Tokyo and throughout the U.S.

Sonny Rollins
saxophone
Woody Shaw
trumpet
Bob Brookmeyer
trombone
John Coltrane
saxophone
Miles Davis
trumpet
Gil Evans
composer / conductor
J.J. Johnson
trombone
Charlie Parker
saxophone, alto

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The New Day Bends...

Self Produced
2023

buy

The Alchemist

Origin Records
2021

buy

Portraits and Places

Origin Records
2016

buy

Shape Shifter

Miles High Records
2009

buy

Manhattan Bones...

Creative Jazz Records
2004

buy

The Alchemist

From: The Alchemist
By Scott Reeves

New Bamboo

From: The Alchemist
By Scott Reeves

Wants to Dance

From: Portraits and Places
By Scott Reeves

Videos

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