Tony Reedus Dead at Age 49
In November 2008, eJazzNews reported the death of drummer Tony Reedus at the age of 49. Reedus died on November 16, 2008, after collapsing at New York’s Kennedy Airport on his return from playing in Italy. Best known for his years in trumpeter Woody Shaw’s band in the early 1980s, he went on to record with Benny Golson, Mulgrew Miller and Kenny Garrett and made several albums under his own name.
What the 2008 report said
The text of the eJazzNews report has not been preserved in the Internet Archive. Its headline survives in Jazz.com’s weekly selection of jazz links from November 2008, which listed it as “Tony Reedus dead at age 49” with the summary that the drummer had collapsed after a flight from Italy.
How he died
JazzTimes reported on November 19, 2008, that Reedus died of a pulmonary embolism. He had been playing in Italy with keyboardist Mike LeDonne and collapsed at the airport after flying home; an ambulance crew could not revive him. AllMusic gives the same cause and the same date.
From Memphis to Woody Shaw
Reedus was born in Memphis on September 22, 1959, and took up the drums at 14. His uncle, the pianist James Williams, who played with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, drew him toward jazz, and he named Chick Webb, Art Blakey, Louis Hayes, Max Roach, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams and Victor Lewis as influences. He enrolled at Memphis State University in 1978 and worked in local clubs. After hearing him at Blues Alley in Memphis, Woody Shaw invited him to audition in New York, and in 1980 Reedus left college to join a band that also included trombonist Steve Turre and pianist Mulgrew Miller. He made his recording debut on Shaw’s United (Columbia, 1981) and stayed until the group broke up in 1983.
Later he worked often with saxophonist Benny Golson and played on Mulgrew Miller’s Wingspan (1987) and several of Kenny Garrett’s early albums. His own albums included The Far Side (1988), Incognito (Enja, 1989), Minor Thang (Criss Cross, 1996) and People Get Ready (1998). For the tradition he came out of, see our guides to hard bop and to jazz drummers.
What happened next
Two of his closest collaborators have since died. Mulgrew Miller, his bandmate with Shaw and leader of the Wingspan group, died in May 2013 at 57. Benny Golson, with whom Reedus recorded several albums between 1989 and 1993, died in September 2024 at 95.
Where to start listening
- United (Columbia, 1981), Woody Shaw: Reedus’s recording debut.
- Wingspan (Landmark, 1987), Mulgrew Miller: Reedus in the pianist’s band.
- Incognito (Enja, 1989), Tony Reedus: one of his own albums as a leader.
Sources
- Jeff Tamarkin, “Drummer Tony Reedus Dies at 49,” JazzTimes, November 19, 2008.
- Jazz.com, “The Best Jazz Links of the Week,” November 2008, accessed October 2026.
- AllMusic, “Tony Reedus,” artist biography, accessed October 2026.
- “Tony Reedus,” Wikipedia, accessed October 2026.
- “Mulgrew Miller obituary,” The Guardian, May 31, 2013.
- “Benny Golson obituary,” The Guardian, September 25, 2024.
- “Mulgrew Miller” and “Benny Golson,” Wikipedia, accessed October 2026.
This page is based on an article from the original eJazzNews archive (2001 to 2018), with background and sources added in 2026. The original text is not republished here.
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