Cleveland "Cleve" Eaton (born August 31, 1939) is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 double bassist from Fairfield, Alabama

Fairfield, Alabama

Fairfield is a city in Jefferson County, Alabama, United States. It is part of the Birmingham–Hoover Metropolitan Area. The population was 12,381 at the 2000 census. As of 2006, the Census estimates the population to be 11,547.-History:...

, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...

. His most famous accomplishments are substantial playing stints with the Ramsey Lewis

Ramsey Lewis

Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. is an American jazz composer, pianist and radio personality. Ramsey Lewis has recorded over 80 albums and has received seven gold records and three Grammy Awards so far in his career.-Biography:...

 Trio and later with the Count Basie Orchestra

Count Basie Orchestra

The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie. The band survived the late '40s decline in big band popularity and went on to produce notable collaborations with singers such as Frank Sinatra and Ella...

. His 1975 recording Plenty Good Eaton is also considered a classic in the funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 music genre.

Biography

Eaton has played on notable recording sessions with nearly all genres – jazz with John Klemmer

John Klemmer

John Klemmer is an American saxophonist, composer, song writer and arranger.He was born in Chicago, Illinois and began playing guitar at age 5 and alto saxophone at age 11. His other early interests included graphics and visual art, writing, dance, puppetry, painting, sculpting and poetry...

 and Bunky Green

Bunky Green

Bunky Green is an American jazz alto saxophonist and educator.-Biography:Vernice "Bunky" Green was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he played the alto saxophone, mainly at a local club called "The Brass Rail."...

, R&B with The Dells

The Dells

The Dells are an R&B and crossover musical group. Their successful recordings spanned more than four decades. Formed in 1952 after attending high school together, the Dells' repertoire has included doo-wop, jazz, soul, disco and contemporary rhythm and blues...

 and Bobby Rush

Bobby Rush

Bobby Lee Rush is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Democratic Party.The district is located principally on the South Side of Chicago. It is a minority-majority district and has a higher percentage of African Americans than any other congressional district in...

, pop

Popular music

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

 with Minnie Riperton

Minnie Riperton

Minnie Julia Riperton was an American singer-songwriter best known for her 1975 single "Lovin' You". She was married to songwriter and music producer Richard Rudolph from 1972 until her death in the summer of 1979. They had two children - music engineer Marc Rudolph and actress/comedienne Maya...

, Jerry Butler

Jerry Butler (singer)

Jerry Butler is an American soul singer and songwriter. He is also noted as being the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group, The Impressions, as well as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.Butler is also an American politician...

 and Rotary Connection

Rotary Connection

Rotary Connection was an American psychedelic soul band, formed in Chicago in 1966. The highly experimental band was the idea of Marshall Chess, son of Chess Records founder Leonard Chess. Marshall was the director behind a start-up label, Cadet Concept Records, and wanted to focus on music outside...

, big band

Big band

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...

 music with George Benson

George Benson

George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....

, Henry Mancini

Henry Mancini

Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...

, Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

, Joe Williams

Joe Williams (jazz singer)

Joe Williams was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards.-Early life:...

, Billy Eckstein, Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...

, Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

. Eaton was dubbed “the Count’s Bassist” during his seventeen year stint and over ten recordings with the Count Basie Orchestra

Count Basie Orchestra

The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie. The band survived the late '40s decline in big band popularity and went on to produce notable collaborations with singers such as Frank Sinatra and Ella...

. Eaton has also performed with Nancy Wilson

Nancy Wilson (singer)

Nancy Wilson is an American singer with more than 70 albums, and three Grammy Awards. She has been labeled a singer of blues, jazz, cabaret and pop; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer." The title she prefers, however, is song stylist...

, Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...

, Meme Hines, Sammy Davis, Jr.

Sammy Davis, Jr.

Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....

, Julie London

Julie London

Julie London was an American singer and actress. She was best known for her smoky, sensual voice. London was at her singing career's peak in the 1950s. Her acting career lasted more than 35 years...

, Bobby Troup

Bobby Troup

Robert William "Bobby" Troup Jr. was an American actor, jazz pianist and songwriter. He is best known for writing the popular standard " Route 66", and for his role as Dr...

e, Brook Benton

Brook Benton

Brook Benton was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he scored hits such as "It's Just A Matter Of Time" and "Endlessly", many of which he co-wrote.He made a comeback in 1970...

, Lou Rawls

Lou Rawls

Louis Allen "Lou" Rawls was an American soul, jazz, and blues singer. He was known for his smooth vocal style: Frank Sinatra once said that Rawls had "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game"...

, Nipsey Russell

Nipsey Russell

Julius "Nipsey" Russell was an American comedian, best known today for his appearances as a guest panelist on game shows from the 1960s through the 1990s, especially Match Game, Password, Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth and Pyramid...

, Morgana King

Morgana King

Morgana King is an American singer and actress. She is a noted jazz singer, who is regarded as a "musician's singer." The musical œuvre of her stylized vocal artistry spans a period of more than four decades and has an "appeal that bridges generations, tastes and life styles"."She is, like all...

, Gloria Lynne

Gloria Lynne

Gloria Lynne is an American jazz vocalist with a recording career spanning from 1958 to 2007. Born Gloria Alleyne, Gloria Lynne grew up in Harlem; her mother was a gospel singer.-Career:...

, Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

, the Magic City Jazz Orchestra

Magic City Jazz Orchestra

The Magic City Jazz Orchestra is an American jazz ensemble which was founded in 1999 as a spin-off of the SuperJazz Big Band by Birmingham, Alabama jazz pianist and vocalist Ray Reach...

, The Platters

The Platters

The Platters were a vocal group of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the burgeoning new genre...

(original), The Temptations, and The Miracles

The Miracles

The Miracles are an American rhythm and blues group from Detroit, Michigan, notable as the first successful group act for Berry Gordy's Motown Record Corporation . Their single "Shop Around" was Motown's first million-selling hit record, and the group went on to become one of Motown's signature...

. In 1974, he began performing and touring with his own group, Cleve Eaton and Co., and in 2004 his group became Cleve Eaton and the Alabama All Stars. Several other well-known Alabama jazz musicians, including pianist Ray Reach

Ray Reach

Raymond Everett Reach, Jr. is an American pianist, vocalist and educator residing in Birmingham, Alabama, now serving as Director of Student Jazz Programs for the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, director of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame All-Stars and President and CEO of Ray Reach Music and Magic City...

, drummer John Nuckols, trumpeter Tommy Stewart

Tommy Stewart (trumpeter)

Tommy Stewart is an American trumpeter, arranger, producer, composer and pianist residing in Birmingham, Alabama. He is a member of several active performing groups, including the Magic City Jazz Orchestra, Cleveland Eaton and the Alabama All-Stars, the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame All-Stars, and Ray...

 and saxophonist Sam Williams

Sam Williams

Sam Williams is an American journalist. He is perhaps best known as the author of a biography of software programmer Richard Stallman, Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software . Prior to beginning Free as in Freedom he met his wife Tracy. She had originally proposed the...

, are frequent players with Cleve Eaton and the Alabama All Stars.

According to the May 7–14, 2009 issue of the Birmingham Weekly, a free weekly paper, Eaton was diagnosed with oral cancer. At present (January 2011) he is cancer free.

Discography

As leader

• 1973: Half and Half (Gamble)
• 1975: The Eaton Menu
• 1975: Plenty Good Eaton (Black Jazz Records
  Black Jazz Records
  Black Jazz Records was a jazz record label founded in Oakland, California during the early 1970s by jazz pianist Gene Russell.Russell founded the label as an alternative to traditional jazz invoking a more political and spiritual tone often with funk overtones. Black Jazz released various types...
  
  )
• 1976: Instant Hip (Ovation)
• 1979: Bama Boogie Woogie (Miracle)
• 1980: Keep Love Alive (Miracle)
• 1983: Love and Dance (TBA Records)
• 1983: Raw "Live Jazz" Featuring Miss Funky Lu (TBA Records)
• I Promise Jesus (TBA Records)
• 1984: A Classic (Cleveland Eaton Enterprises)
• 1985: Vol. 1 Live (TBA Records)
• 1997: Cleve Eaton Orchestra

As sideman

With the Ramsey Lewis

Ramsey Lewis

Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. is an American jazz composer, pianist and radio personality. Ramsey Lewis has recorded over 80 albums and has received seven gold records and three Grammy Awards so far in his career.-Biography:...

• Wade in the Water (1966)
• Dancing in the Street (1967)
• Goin' Latin (1967)
• Maiden Voyage (1968)
• Another Voyage (1969)
• The Piano Player
  The Piano Player (Ramsey Lewis album)
  The Piano Player is a jazz album by Ramsey Lewis, released on Cadet Records in 1970. The songs were arranged by Charles Stepney and Richard Evans. It was recorded at Ter Mar Studios, Chicago, in November, 1969...
  
   (1970)
• Upendo Ni Pamoja (1972)
• Funky Serenity (1973)
• Sun Goddess (1974)
• Solar Wind (1974)

With the Count Basie Orchestra

Count Basie Orchestra

The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie. The band survived the late '40s decline in big band popularity and went on to produce notable collaborations with singers such as Frank Sinatra and Ella...

• Strolling with the Count (1980). Ovation
• Kansas City Shout (1980). Pablo
• Warm Breeze (1981).
• 88 Basie Street (1983). Fantasy. (Winner 1984 Grammy Awards Best Jazz Instrumental Performance - Big Band)
• Me and You (1983).
• Fancy Pants (1983).
• The Legend, the Legacy (1989)
• George Benson/Count Basie Orchestra Big Boss Band (1990).
• Best of the Count Basie Big Band (1991)
• Live at El Morocco
  El Morocco
  El Morocco was a 20th century Manhattan nightclub frequented by the rich and famous in the 1930s and 1950s. It was famous for its blue zebra-stripe motif and its official photographer, Jerome Zerbe.-History:In 1931, John Perona , an Italian...
  
   (1992).
• Joe Williams/Count Basie Orchestra "I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water" (1992)
• Joe Williams/Count Basie Orchestra "Orchestra Hall, Detroit, November 20, 1992" (1992)

With Bunky Green

Bunky Green

Bunky Green is an American jazz alto saxophonist and educator.-Biography:Vernice "Bunky" Green was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he played the alto saxophone, mainly at a local club called "The Brass Rail."...

• Playing for Keeps (1966)

With Gene Ammons

Gene Ammons

Eugene "Jug" Ammons also known as "The Boss," was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, and the son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons.-Biography:...

• w/Dexter Gordon The Chase (1970)
• w/James Moody Chicago Concert (1971)

With the Soulful Strings

• Groovin' with the Soulful Strings (1967)
• The Magic of Christmas (1968)

With Robert Moore

Robert Moore

Robert Moore may refer to:*Robert Moore , Northern Ireland theologian and politician*Robert Moore , United States Congressman from Pennsylvania...

• Serve You Ma'am (2000)
• Wildcat (2005)

Compilations

• Santa's Bag: An All-Star Jazz Christmas "Christmas Blues" (1994) Telarc

External links

• LA Times Awards Database
• Alabama Music Hall of Fame
• Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame
• [ All Music]
• Cleveland Eaton website
• Cleveland Eaton at Bhamwiki.com
• Short, Dale (Fall 1997) "UAB's Jazz Man: Cleveland Eaton" UAB Magazine Vol. 17, No. 4
• in the Magic City" (VHS) Documentary Film by Sandy Jaffe, 1985