Jimmy Cleveland

Jimmy Cleveland. . Jazz trombonist Jimmy Cleveland was a versatile musician whose work was largely confined to other artists' sessions, pit orchestras and broadcasting. Among the artists he backed were Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, James Brown, Billie Holiday, Cannonball Adderley, Ray Charles, and Dinah Washington. His fluency and precision on the valve trombone, together with his warm tone and rich blues feel, made him greatly in demand for several decades. , James Milton Cleveland was born in Wartrace on May 3, 1926. By 1930, the family was living on Knob Creek Road. Cleveland's father was a plumber who owned his business. Cleveland found a trombone in the loft of a local store when he was 16, and his father bought it for him. He worked in his father's business until his enlistment on January 2, 1945, toward the end of the Second World War. After discharge in 1946, he attended a historically black college, Tennessee State University in Nashville where he performed with the Tennessee State Collegians band. He also led a small group that performed in local clubs. , On April 10, 1949, Cleveland was with the TSU band at New York's Carnegie Hall for the Pittsburgh Courier's Poll Winners' Jazz Concert. Another artist on the bill, African American big band leader Lionel Hampton, hired him on the spot. In October 1950, Cleveland made his recording debut with Hampton, and he can be seen briefly in Hampton's 1950 “soundie” movie short to promote the song “Vibe Boogie”. After a 1953 tour of Europe, Cleveland left Hampton and settled in New York, working as an on-call session man for recordings and radio. , Mercury Records' jazz A&R man, Bob Shad, heard Cleveland backing singer Dinah Washington and signed him to a solo contract. In August and November 1955, Cleveland recorded his first album, Introducing Jimmy Cleveland and his All-Stars, for Mercury's jazz imprint, EmArcy. He continued recording for Mercury until 1959, and his four EmArcy LPs comprised his only solo albums. , Cleveland continued to work sessions and played in the pit orchestra for Funny Girl when Barbra Streisand held the lead. In 1967, he joined Thelonious Monk's octet/nonet for a European tour and he made short forays on the road with other jazz artists., but his regular employment was in the studios. , Called to the west coast by arranger-producer Quincy Jones, Cleveland worked for many studio orchestras, commuting between New York and Los Angeles until 1974 when he and his wife, singer Janet Thurlow, settled in the Lynnwood suburb of Los Angeles. He played in the house band on The Merv Griffin Show from 1969 until 1977. He also worked sessions for Motown and other record labels. , Cleveland's work declined sharply as he began to suffer side effects of diabetes, but he and his wife had purchased rental properties and lived comfortably in Lynnwood. In his later years, he assembled a 9-piece band to play local jazz clubs and overseas dates. In interviews, Cleveland decried systemic racism in the studios, arguing that white musicians would get the first call for studio work. , Jimmy Cleveland died in Lynnwood on August 23, 2008. Assessing his own musicianship, Cleveland said that he was admired for “[My] speed, range, and the things I do with flexibilities and chords. I still don't hear [other] trombone players doing it.” , [Captions] Top: Jimmy Cleveland, 1955. Photo by Bill Spitka/Getty Images. Inset: Photo courtesy Howard Cheng via Wikimedia Creative Commons; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jimmy_Cleveland.jpg