| Cleveland "Cleve" Eaton | |
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 Cleve Eaton
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| Background information | |
| Born | August 31, 1939 Fairfield, Alabama United States |
| Genres | Jazz, swing, funk, R&B, pop |
| Occupations | Musician, bandleader, producer, composer, publisher, arranger, businessman |
| Instruments | Double Bass, saxophone, trumpet, tuba |
| Years active | 1960 to Present |
Cleveland Eaton (born August 31, 1939) is an American jazz double bassist from Fairfield, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. His most famous accomplishments are substantial playing stints with the Ramsey Lewis Trio and later with the Count Basie Orchestra. His entertaining style and deep knowledge of jazz tradition have earned him great respect in the jazz community. His 1975 recording Plenty Good Eaton is also considered a classic in the funk music genre.[1]
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Cleveland Josephus "Cleve" Eaton II was raised with an intense comprehensive musical background. He was playing his mother’s piano at the age of five, and turned his efforts toward the saxophone by the time he was eight. Eaton took up the trumpet two years later, and when he reached the age of fifteen, music teacher John Springer introduced him to the tuba and bass.
Eaton played in a jazz group in college at Tennessee A & I State University (now Tennessee State University), where he earned his bachelor’s degree in music in 1960. He then moved to Chicago and toured with the Ike Cole Trio. He later performed memorable concert tours with top-notch jazz bands led by Larry Novak, Ramsey Lewis, and the legendary Count Basie.
Over the years, Cleveland Eaton became a consummate bassist, producer, composer, publisher, arranger, and head of his own Birmingham-based record company. As a recording artist, Eaton’s version of Bama Boogie Woogie became a phenomenal best seller in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, France, and Australia.
Cleveland Eaton was nominated to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1993, has a Bronze Star in the Walk of Fame, and was inducted on February 22, 2008. Eaton’s other numerous honors include his induction into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame 1979, the Playboy Jazz Poll, Canada’s Cultural Enhancement Award and the Achievement Award at the Count Basie Tribute Concert. He received the Governor’s Arts Award in 1995 Alabama and the Don Redman Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.
Cleve Eaton is a recognized name in the jazz world, as a producer, composer, arranger, and for his incredible performances with the Ike Cole Trio, Donald Byrd-Pepper Adams Quintet, the Larry Novak Trio, and over thirty recordings in his ten years with the Ramsey Lewis Trio, which included four gold singles, including "Hang on Sloopy" and "Wade in the Water". There were four gold albums, including Solar Wind' and Sun Goddess.
Eaton has played on notable recording sessions with nearly all genres – jazz with John Klemmer and Bunky Green, R&B with The Dells and Bobby Rush, pop with Minnie Riperton, Jerry Butler and Rotary Connection, big band music with George Benson, Henry Mancini, Frank Sinatra, Joe Williams, Billy Eckstein, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald. Eaton was dubbed “the Count’s Bassist” during his six-year stint and over ten recordings with the Count Basie Orchestra. Eaton has also performed with Nancy Wilson, Peggy Lee, Meme Hines, Sammy Davis, Jr., Julie London, Bobby Troupe, Brook Benton, Lou Rawls, Nipsey Russell, Morgana King, Gloria Lynne, Herbie Hancock, the Magic City Jazz Orchestra, The Platters(original), The Temptations, and The Miracles. 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, drummer John Nuckols, trumpeter Tommy Stewart and saxophonist Sam Williams, are frequent players with Cleve Eaton and the Alabama All Stars.
According to the May 7th-14th 2009 issue of the Birmingham Weekly, a free weekly paper, Eaton has been diagnosed with oral cancer.
With the Ramsey Lewis
With the Count Basie Orchestra
With Bunky Green
With Gene Ammons
With the Soulful Strings
With Robert Moore
Compilations
   | Cleveland Eaton website - Cleveland Eaton, Jazz Bassist, Official Website - Sign Guestbook for Cleveland Eaton |
| | Short, Dale (Fall 1997) "UAB's Jazz Man: Cleveland Eaton" ''UAB Magazine'' Vol. 17, No. 4 - UAB's Jazz Man: Cleveland Eaton |
| | Alabama Music Hall of Fame - Alabama Music Hall of Fame | Tuscumbia, Alabama |
| | LA Times Awards Database - Academy Awards Oscars Nominations, Grammys, Golden Globes Awards - The Envelope - LA Times |
| | "Jazz in the Magic City" (Film documentary, 1985) - Jazz in the Magic City (1985) |
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