Author Description

Doc Cheatham, who died in June 1997 at the age of 91, was one of the longest playing jazz musicians in history. He first played trumpet in a recording studio in 1926 when he cut his first record with Ma Rainey, the blues singer, while his final recording was released only in May 1997. He was still playing gigs the day he died at his home club, the Sweet Basil in New York. This is his autobiography but it also encompasses seven decades of jazz. He tells the story of growing up in Nashville where his father was a barber. He was a self-taught musician who soon began backing touring singers like Bessie Smith. In Chicago in the 1920s, he caught the attention of Louis Armstrong, and he was among the pioneers of Black American music in Europe. He worked in Berlin initially and then travelled to the Soviet Union and Spain. He returned to the States in 1930 and joined the Cab Calloway Orchestra. During the 1940s he drifted through several bands including Ted Wilson's and had stints in Latin America but he returned to full-time jazz in the 1950s when he played in several groups incuding Lionel Hampton's and Benny Goodman's. In the 1960s he developed a unique style of solo singing lyrics with a 1920s pastiche which became his hallmark right up to the end. From reviews of the hardback 'Cheatham's magnificent trumpet style, full of clarion-calls and gentle, far-away melodies is now one of the few remaining links with the jazz of the 1920s and early 1930s. This short