DOC CHEATHAM

Adolphus Anthony Cheatham, better known as Doc Cheatham (June 13, 1905 – June 2, 1997) was a jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader. After having played in some of the leading jazz groups from the 1920s on, Cheatham's career enjoyed renewed acclaim in later decades; Cheatham himself agreed with the critical assessment that he was probably the only jazz musician to create his best work after the age of 70.  Cheatham was born in Nashville, Tennessee. He noted there was no jazz music there in his youth; like many in the United States he was introduced to the style by early recordings and touring groups at the end of the 1910s. He abandoned his family's plans for him to be a pharmacist (although retaining the medically inspired nickname "Doc") to play music, initially playing soprano and tenor saxophone in addition to trumpet in Nashville's African American Vaudeville theater. Cheatham later toured in read more...