Kid Rena was born on August 30, 1898 in New Orleans, Louisiana.registered in the registry office under the name of Rene Kid Henry.
Replacement for Louis Armstrong
After his debut under Manuel Pérez in 1919, Kid Rena was hired by Kid Ory to replace Louis Armstrong. Then he forms his own jazz band, with which he successfully performs in the Sanssouci hall. In 1922, he organized a new group with George Lewis, Morris French, Richard McNeil, Albert Glennie and his brother Joe, with whom he played in the most elegant cabarets of New Orleans and made various tours in the north, also stopping in Chicago. He then took over the leadership of the Tuxedo Brass Band before forming the Pacific Brass Band in the early 1930s.
Beautiful and powerful sound
In 1936 he was in the Gypsy Tea Room at the head of a new jazz band, and later in other cabarets, including the Brown Derby, where he played with Alec Bigard, Andrew Morgan, Alphonse Picou and other famous musicians. In 1940 he organizes his first and only engraving session with the help of Pick, Big Eye, Louis Nelson, Willie Santiago, Glennie and Joe Wren. In his later years he performed at the Brown Derby. He died in New Orleans on April 25, 1949. Samuel Charters, in his New Orleans Jazz 1885/1957, places Kid Rena in a small circle of “kings” that includes Chris Kelly, Buddy Petit, Sam Morgan, and Punch Miller. , specifying that his cornet sounded not only beautiful and powerful, but also extremely expressive.