Jimmy Cheatham

As a teacher, trombonist Jimmy Cheatham paid homage to the past by preparing young music students at UC San Diego to take jazz into the future. On stage, performing with the band he and his wife formed, he demonstrated why the music needed to live on. The band's style of playing incorporates blues and jazz. It was, the Cheathams said, "unrestrained, exuberant, soulful, rollicking, growling, howling, roaring, wicked, virtuous wild and truthful."

As a teacher, trombonist Jimmy Cheatham paid homage to the past by preparing young music students at UC San Diego to take jazz into the future. On stage, performing with the band he and his wife formed, he demonstrated why the music needed to live on. The band's style of playing incorporates blues and jazz. It was, the Cheathams said, "unrestrained, exuberant, soulful, rollicking, growling, howling, roaring, wicked, virtuous wild and truthful."

Ask Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham what it was like when they met at a Buffalo, N.Y., jam session in the mid-'50s and they'll say almost in unison: "It was bells." "Bells" is old-school hipster talk for something noteworthy. The phrase was coined by the late master of such lingo, saxophonist Lester "Prez" Young. Jimmy picked up the usage when he served in an Army unit during World War II that included Young, Count Basie drummer "Papa" Jo Jones and Los Angeles-born drummer Chico Hamilton.

Ask Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham what it was like when they met at a Buffalo, N.Y., jam session in the mid-'50s and they'll say almost in unison: "It was bells." "Bells" is old-school hipster talk for something noteworthy. The phrase was coined by the late master of such lingo, saxophonist Lester "Prez" Young. Jimmy picked up the usage when he served in an Army unit during World War II that included Young, Count Basie drummer "Papa" Jo Jones and Los Angeles-born drummer Chico Hamilton.

The roster of jazz musicians who call San Diego home, at least on occasion, is diverse. Some, like keyboardist Art Resnick and saxophonist Joe Marillo, have established sizable followings through years of playing the nightclub circuit. Others, like bassist George (Red) Callender and reed player Buddy Collette, are nationally known stars who pass through here on tour and frequently return to vacation.

The Alleycat Bistro, fast becoming the most adventurous new jazz room in town, took a calculated risk by bringing in over the weekend an eight-piece San Diego-based band led by pianist/blues singer Jeannie Cheatham and her trombonist husband, Jimmy. The gamble paid off. Because of heavy air play for the group's two albums, the room was packed Friday evening as the Cheathams went through their cheerfully old-timey motions.

The concept of a new, contemporary-style blues band may seem to some like an anachronism in these days of funk, fusion and electronics. No less contradictory is the idea that a jazz group of any kind could make a broad, perhaps international impact while based in San Diego. Jimmy and Jeannie Cheatham have beaten the odds.

Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham have warmed music lovers' souls for more than 40 years now. Consider the husband-and-wife team one of the few keepers of the Kansas City flame--a lighter, jumping, 1920s and 1930s style of jazz and blues noted for its bluesy vocals, percolating horn solos and rhythmic thrust. The pair--Jeannie plays the piano and sings, Jimmy is a bass trombonist and arranger--is known for giving lively, often uplifting concerts.

Jimmy Cheatham, the San Diego trombonist who leads the Sweet Baby Blues Band with wife, Jeannie, a vocalist and pianist, will make a rare appearance before a San Diego audience next Wednesday, putting the UC San Diego Jazz Ensemble through its paces in a show at Mandeville Auditorium on campus. Cheatham is a professor of music at UCSD, directing the jazz program. Can San Diegans expect to hear him play? "They'll hear me play the orchestra," joked Cheatham, who wants the jazz program at UCSD to be "strongly based in the black musical experience, the Kansas City style, from Bennie Moten to Count Basie and Fletcher Henderson, from Ellington to Thad Jones."

The Cheathams with their "Sweet Baby Blues Band" work the same territory familiarized in four earlier albums, this time with the addition on three cuts of guitarist Clarence (Gatemouth) Brown. Basically, it's the leaders (piano/vocal and bass trombone, respectively) who dominate, introducing five new originals, along with a welcome change of pace when Jeannie Cheatham tries out a ballad, "Trav'lin' Light."

Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham have warmed music lovers' souls for more than 40 years now. Consider the husband-and-wife team one of the few keepers of the Kansas City flame--a lighter, jumping, 1920s and 1930s style of jazz and blues noted for its bluesy vocals, percolating horn solos and rhythmic thrust. The pair--Jeannie plays the piano and sings, Jimmy is a bass trombonist and arranger--is known for giving lively, often uplifting concerts.

The Cheathams with their "Sweet Baby Blues Band" work the same territory familiarized in four earlier albums, this time with the addition on three cuts of guitarist Clarence (Gatemouth) Brown. Basically, it's the leaders (piano/vocal and bass trombone, respectively) who dominate, introducing five new originals, along with a welcome change of pace when Jeannie Cheatham tries out a ballad, "Trav'lin' Light."

Jimmy Cheatham, the San Diego trombonist who leads the Sweet Baby Blues Band with wife, Jeannie, a vocalist and pianist, will make a rare appearance before a San Diego audience next Wednesday, putting the UC San Diego Jazz Ensemble through its paces in a show at Mandeville Auditorium on campus. Cheatham is a professor of music at UCSD, directing the jazz program. Can San Diegans expect to hear him play? "They'll hear me play the orchestra," joked Cheatham, who wants the jazz program at UCSD to be "strongly based in the black musical experience, the Kansas City style, from Bennie Moten to Count Basie and Fletcher Henderson, from Ellington to Thad Jones."

The concept of a new, contemporary-style blues band may seem to some like an anachronism in these days of funk, fusion and electronics. No less contradictory is the idea that a jazz group of any kind could make a broad, perhaps international impact while based in San Diego. Jimmy and Jeannie Cheatham have beaten the odds.

The Alleycat Bistro, fast becoming the most adventurous new jazz room in town, took a calculated risk by bringing in over the weekend an eight-piece San Diego-based band led by pianist/blues singer Jeannie Cheatham and her trombonist husband, Jimmy. The gamble paid off. Because of heavy air play for the group's two albums, the room was packed Friday evening as the Cheathams went through their cheerfully old-timey motions.

The roster of jazz musicians who call San Diego home, at least on occasion, is diverse. Some, like keyboardist Art Resnick and saxophonist Joe Marillo, have established sizable followings through years of playing the nightclub circuit. Others, like bassist George (Red) Callender and reed player Buddy Collette, are nationally known stars who pass through here on tour and frequently return to vacation.

The Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham Sweet Baby Blues Band, six men and two women strong, blew in Friday from its San Diego home base to play two nights at Catalina Bar and Grill. Pervasive though the blues still is in most jazz territories, this good-time group is like nothing else now active. With Jeannie Cheatham singing and playing straight-from-the-roots piano, and her husband pulling his weight as bass trombonist and arranger, you are transported back to the Savoy Ballroom.

Central Avenue, once the heart of black Los Angeles, will return to a distant era this weekend when a mile-long stretch of the historic street will be closed for the second annual Central Avenue Jazz Festival. Thousands of music lovers are expected to converge on Central between Vernon Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to hear the sounds that once drew musical giants and jazz fans from around the world to the area.