Doc Cheatham, born Adolphus Anthony Cheatham, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist, requested by a regular listener. Doc Cheatham was an American jazz trumpeter, singer and bandleader. You’ll hear a set of bands he played in from live radio broadcasts, and a set of 1930s Cab Calloway in which band Cheatham played 1st trumpet.

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton. Hear past Phantom Dancer online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 9 February at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

NEVER STOPPED LEARNING – 1920s

His trumpet playing career began with jazz bands in the 1920s. When he started, he was influenced by the jazz that was around him and that had developed in the late 1910s. His early trumpet influences included Henry Busse and Johnny Dunn. He moved to Chicago in 1924 and heard King Oliver. Oliver’s playing was a revelation to Cheatham. Cheatham followed the Jazz King around and Oliver gave him a trumpet mute which Cheatham treasured and performed with for the rest of his career. A further revelation came in 1925 when he met, and sometimes depped for Louis Armstrong. Armstrong became a lifelong influence on Cheatham. So began a professional career playing in famous bands, and eventually leading his own, which involved constant experimentation with technique and musical form. A listener asked that I do a Phantom Dancer with Doc Cheatham as feature artist. When I read his story I connected immediately with his lifelong study of performance technique. I do it myself, currently experimenting with a different breathing technique for singing, and new camera techniques for acting.

1930s – SCHLOSSBERG

After touring Europe with the  Sam Wooding band in 1929-30, Cheatham returned to the US in 1930 and played with McKinney’s Cotton Pickers before joining the Cab Calloway Ork. Cheatham was Calloway’s lead trumpeter from 1932 to 1939. He studied with Max Schlossberg for 6 months in 1931.

Doc Cheatham in Cab Calloway’s Orchestra

1940s – CLAVE RHYTHM

As a swing trumpeter during WW2 Cheatham played in the orchestras Benny Carter, Teddy Wilson, Fletcher Henderson and Claude Hopkins. After 1945, he moved to Latin music, joining the bands of Perez Prado, Marcelino Guerra and Ricardo Ray. He was fired the first time he joined Machito’s band. He couldn’t handle clave rhythm. Cheatham eventually mastered it.

1950 – 60s

Doc Cheatham singing

While continuing with Latin bands into the 1950s, Cheatham also played with Wilbur de Paris (in whose band he had played in 1927) and Sammy Price. He was part of a tour of Africa for the US State Department in 1959 and led his own band on Broadway from 1960-65 before touring with Benny Goodman.

1970 – 90s

In his sixties during the 1970s, Doc Cheatham made a vigorous self-assessment of his trumpet playing. He taped himself, listening critically to the results. The discipline paid off with greater positive critical attention.

He even began singing. His singing career started by accident in a Paris recording studio on 2 May 1977. During a sound check at the start of a recording session with Sammy Price’s band, Cheatham sang and scatted his way through a couple of choruses of ‘What Can I Say Dear After I Say I’m Sorry’. The miking happened to be good from the start and the tape machine was already rolling. The track was included on the LP ‘Doc Cheatham: Good for What Ails You’. His singing was so well received, Cheatham continued to sing as well as play trumpet for the rest of his career. In 1998, Doc received a posthumous Grammy for Best Jazz Solo on ‘Stardust’, a track on his CD, Doc Cheatham and Nicholas Payton (see video near the top of this article). His wife Amanda and daughter Alicia accepted the award on his behalf. Watch Doc Cheatham on TV in Antwerp, 1958,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBWNTDGBgwo

9 FEBRUARY PLAY LIST