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Cleve Eaton

By Philip Booth | April, 2008

Like many other bassists, Cleve Eaton's first encounter with a bass was an life-changing event. A chance encounter and a teacher’s guidance would set Eaton—who played piano, saxophone, trumpet, and tuba in Fairfield, Alabama—on a career path that would lead him to extended stints with pianist Ramsey Lewis and the Count Basie Orchestra. He put in ten years with Lewis and made more than 30 recordings, including two gold albums and the popular singles “Wade in the Water” and “Hang on Sloopy.” Then, an offer for a two-week tour with Basie in 1979 turned into a 17-year stay that yielded ten records. Eaton is also a veteran of performances and recordings with Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, the Temptations, and Minnie Riperton. After leaving the Basie Orchestra, he returned to the Birmingham area and directed jazz bands for several years at the University of Alabama. He continues to lead Cleve Eaton & the Alabama All Stars, and he releases CDs on his TBA label with the help of Myra, his wife and business manager. In February, Cleve Eaton was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.


Your high-school teacher led you to play bass and drop the other instruments. How did that happen?
His name was John Springer, and he played tuba, too. One day I saw this big thing in his car, and I said, “Man, that’s not a dead body in there, is it?” I had never seen a bass. He said “Son, that’s a string bass.” He took it out of the car and took me into the band room, where he played the devil out of that bass. It impressed me so much that he let me bring the bass home. About a week later he said, “Son, if you learn how to play the blues in Bb and F, I can get you a gig.” I turned all that other stuff loose and put all my effort on the bass. I started gigging, making money, $50 a night sometimes. I thought I was rich. They’re still paying $50 bucks a night.

What kept you interested in playing bass?
You don’t carry something like that around without becoming attached to it. I was very protective of my bass; I loved it like a child.

How did you join Count Basie’s band?
I was home working on my master’s degree when I got a call from Basie asking me to join his band for a few weeks. I met him onstage in Elkhart, Indiana, and I was thinking, Two weeks and I’m going to be through. I played my first solo, and Count Basie said, “Hmmm.” I didn’t get another solo for a month. That was Basie’s way of punishing your ass for stepping out of line. Basie was a devious, funny cat, but from that time on I had the featured solo of the Basie band. I closed the show with “Good Time Blues.” Basie and I toured the damn world around.

What has kept you in demand?
I give my all. That’s what keeps me going. When I hit that stage, it’s business: My whole attention is on the stage, and I do it to my utmost ability. Whether I’ve got one person out there or 20,000, it’s the same thing: I work hard. You’ve got to think when you’re onstage. If the song ain’t grooving, I can make it groove. When I do things that make it move, I inspire the other guys, and it catches on. That’s what my job is: to make music that you can tap your foot to. Musically, I am happier than I have ever been. I got one solo a night for ten years with Ramsey, one solo a night for 17 years with Count Basie, and now with Cleve Eaton & the Alabama All-Stars I get one any time. I can play things I never dreamed of before.

CAN BE HEARD ON

Two Old Tigers and One Baby Tiger, Live [TBA, 2008]
Cleve Eaton, The Many Faces of Cleve [TBA, 2008].

CURRENTLY SPINNING

“I don’t listen to anything but Cleve Eaton music; I don’t even listen to the radio in the car. Whenever I hear a song, I have to analyze it and I can’t relax.”

GEAR

Bass Circa 1960 u-size Juzek with Thomastik Spirocore strings and Underwood pickup
Rig Walter Woods head

 

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