A trombonist and arranger best remembered for stints in support of Chico Hamilton and Duke Ellington, Jimmy Cheatham was also a jazz educator and bandleader, with wife Jeannie helming the Sweet Baby Blues Band for close to half a century. Born in Birmingham, AL, on June 18, 1924, Cheatham was in his late teens when his family relocated to Buffalo, NY. From 1942 to 1946 he served in the U.S. Army, playing in a military band that also featured saxophonist Lester Young and drummer Papa Jo Jones (later replaced by drummer Hamilton, inaugurating a collaboration that continued off and on for several decades). Upon receiving his service discharge, Cheatham studied at the New York Conservatory of Music, followed by a three-year stint at Hollywood's Westlake College of Music. A favored pupil of famed arranger Russell Garcia, he later played in bands led by Gerald Wilson and Benny Carter before returning to Buffalo in 1955 and signing on with saxophonist Bull Moose Jackson. There Cheatham met singer/pianist Jeannie Evans in 1956, and the couple married three years later, in the interim launching their long-running Sweet Baby Blues Band, which proudly upheld the traditions of classic Kansas City-style jazz and blues.

The Cheathams relocated to New York City in 1961, and for close to a decade Jimmy tenured as Hamilton's musical director and arranger, moonlighting with the likes of Ornette Coleman and Lionel Hampton while also emerging as a sought-after session player. During the early '70s Cheatham served several tours of duty behind Ellington, concurrently teaching jazz at Vermont's Bennington College and at the University of Wisconsin before accepting a position at the University of California-San Diego in 1978 -- the Sweet Baby Blues Band developed a loyal cult following there thanks largely to their weekly jam sessions, and in 1984 the Cheathams issued their first LP, a Concord label release also titled Sweet Baby Blues. A series of acclaimed sessions followed, and in addition to recording and touring, Cheatham remained a fixture of the UCSD campus until retiring in 1993; he nevertheless continued on as director of the university's jazz ensemble until 2005. Cheatham underwent heart surgery in December 2006; he died just weeks later at the age of 82. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi