Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jeannie Cheatham was born Jean E. Evans on August 14, 1927 and grew up in Akron, Ohio. At the age of five, she started having lessons on her aunt’s newly-acquired piano, which was soon moved to her home when it transpired that she had a talent for music her aunt lacked. Not long after, she began playing for services at the church her family attended. Throughout her school years, her piano teacher also took her to play at weddings and social events, as well as giving recitals

She first played jazz music at age 14 when she was requested to join a local 15-piece rehearsal orchestra. Still in high school Jeannie began playing in smaller groups and found herself in demand professionally as most younger male musicians were drafted into the US Army during World War II. In 1944, she was accepted as a student at the University of Akron but was unable to complete more than one year for financial reasons.

She met and married Jimmy Cheatham, with whom she formed the Sweet Baby Blues Band in 1984. Her autobiography, Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On: My Life In Music, was published in 2006, the same year they received a lifetime achievement award at the San Diego Music Awards, and in 2022, were inducted into the San Diego Music Hall of Fame.

It was noted by Los Angeles Times contributor Dirk Sutro that Jeannie Cheatham remains one of the under-appreciated greats of jazz and blues, both for her spare, tasteful piano playing, which ranges from boogie-woogie to Monk‑ish surprises, and for her earthy but sensuous voice.

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Requisites

SURF RIDE | ART PEPPER

Saxophonist Art Pepper made his debut recording session of Surf Ride in Los Angeles, California on March 4, 1952, when he recorded tracks 4-6 on the album. Subsequent recording sessions took place on March 29, 1953  when he recorded tracks 1-3 and then on August 25, 1954 recording tracks 7-12. The three sessions resulted in the completion of the twelve takes that ultimately made it to the album.

The album was produced by Ozzie Cadena and originally released as a 12 inch LP on the Savoy label in 1956. The liner notes were written by Yasukuni Terashima and the cover offers a clear though slightly too wholesome California motif to be considered for an addition to the cheesy Fifties Batchelor Collection of “girls on covers “, though the redhead in bikini helps.

1. 1. Tickle Toe (Lester Young) – 2:55
   2. Chili Pepper – 3:00
   3. Susie the Poodle – 3:14
   4. Brown Gold – 2:26
   5. Holiday Flight – 3:1
   6. Surf Ride – 2:54
   7. Straight Life – 2:52
   8. Cinnamon – 3:11
   9. Thyme Time – 3:30
   10. The Way You Look Tonight (Dorothy Fields, Jerome Kern) – 3:48
   11. Nutmeg – 3:15
   12. Art’s Oregano – 3:08

• Art Pepper – alto saxophone
• Jack Montrose – tenor saxophone (tracks 7-12)
• Russ Freeman (tracks 1-3), Hampton Hawes (tracks 4-6), Claude Williamson (tracks 7-12) – piano
• Monty Budwig (tracks 7-12), Joe Mondragon (tracks 4-6), Bob Whitlock (tracks 1-3) – bass
• Larry Bunker (tracks 4-12), Bobby White (tracks 1-3) – drums

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Guy Patrick Paquinet was born in Tours, France on August 13, 1903, Tours, France. He played in an army band in the early 1920s, then worked with Paul Gason, Lud Gluskin, Fred Mélé, and Don Parker.

Guy led his own ensemble from 1934 to 1936, then worked as a sideman for Alix Combelle, Django Reinhardt, and Ray Ventura. In the 1940s he returned to bandleading, leading his own ensembles through the 1950s and working with, among others, Sidney Bechet, Dizzy Gillespie, and Tony Proteau.

Trombonist Guy Paquinet, whose son André became a noteworthy trombonist, transitioned on January 5, 1981 in Selle-sur-le-Bied.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Stanley Mackay Greig was born on August 12, 1930 in Joppa, Edinburgh, Scotland to a father who was a drummer and piano tuner. While still in high school he played with Sandy Brown in 1945, then played piano and drums with him from 1948 to 1954. Moving to London, England in the mid-Fifties he played with Ken Colyer, Humphrey Lyttelton, and Bruce Turner, then with the Fairweather-Brown All-Stars in 1958-59.

He played with Turner again briefly before becoming a member of Acker Bilk’s Paramount Jazz Band from 1960 to 1968. After 1969 Greig made piano his primary instrument, leading his own small groups and playing boogie woogie and blues piano. He played with Dave Shepherd and Johnny Hawksworth as a sideman in the early 1970s, then formed the London Jazz Big Band in 1975.

From 1977-80 he played with George Melly, then toured as a bandleader in Europe in the early Eighties. He worked again with Lyttelton for a decade beginning in 1985, then worked with Wally Fawkes later in the 1990s. The Stan Greig Trio played many gigs in and around London, with the Rolling Stones’s Charlie Watts sometimes turning out on drums.

Pianist, drummer, and bandleader Stan Greig transitioned on November 18, 2012 after suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Nat Towles was born August 10, 1905 in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of string bassist Phil “Charlie” Towles. He started his musical career as a guitarist and violinist at the age of eleven but switched to the bass at 13. Performing in his hometown through his teenage years with Gus Metcalf’s Melody Jazz Band, he eventually played with a number of bands, including Buddie Petit, Henry “Red” Allen, Jack Carey, and the Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra.

In 1923 he formed The Nat Towles’ Creole Harmony Kings. This jazz band became one of the prominent territory bands in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. By 1925 he was playing bass for Fate Marable, and reformed his own band the next year. 1934 saw Towles organizing a band of young musicians studying music at Wiley College in Austin, Texas. He also worked the club circuit in Dallas, Texas during this period, when T-Bone Walker and Buddy Tate worked for him.

In the 1930s he transformed his band into The Nat Towles Dance Orchestra, signed with the National Orchestra Service, and focused on swing music through the 1930s and 1940s. In 1934 Towles took up residence in North Omaha, Nebraska, where his band was stationed for the next 25 years. With this outfit Towles dueled with Lloyd Hunter for dominance over the much-contested Near North Side in North Omaha, where he was held over at the Dreamland Ballroom for several weeks. In 1936 and 1937 Towles’ band held residence at Omaha’s Krug Park.

Over the course of his career Billy Mitchell, Buster Cooper, Red Holloway, Buster Bennett, Preston Love, Paul Quinichette, Neal Hefti, Jimmy Heath, Duke Groner, Buddy McLewis and Oliver Nelson were members of his band at one time or another. He continued leading bands throughout the 1950s until retiring to California in 1959 where he opened a bar.

Never finding true national recognition and fearing the limelight would then steal away his best players, there are very few recordings of Nat Towles’ Band. Bassist, big band leader and educator Nat Towles, whose band is considered one of the greatest territory bands of all time by musicians who played in it and by others who heard it, transitioned in Berkeley, California of a heart attack in January 1963.

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