Daily Dose Of Jazz…

De Priest E. B. Wheeler was born on March 1, 1903 in Kansas City, Missouri and played trumpet and mellophone in The Knights of Pythias Band while attending Lincoln High School. With the band he journeyed to St. Louis, Missouri in 1917. Returning to Kansas City he worked in a local dance hall for a year, before becoming a member of the resident band at the Chauffeur’s Club in St. Louis in 1918.

He was with Dave Lewis’s Jazz Boys in Kansas City, then toured with a circus band until 1922. Joining the Wilson Robinson Syncopators in St. Louis in 1923, he toured the Pantages Circuit from Chicago, Illinois to California with that band. The band eventually settled in New York in early 1925 where they were renamed Andy Preer And His Cotton Club Orchestra. Subsequently they worked under the leadership of violinist Andrew Freer until his death in 1927. Later on the group became known as The Missourians, and when Cab Calloway joined as a singer in 1928, from 1930 on he took over and they became Cab’s band.

Wheeler remained with Calloway until 1940, touring Europe in 1934. He worked for the postal authorities for many years, but continued to play part-time with bands and orchestras through the 1950s. Trombonist De Preist Wheeler passed away April 10, 1998 in St. Albans, Queens, New York.

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