Jeannie Cheatham

Profile

HALF THE FUN of being a jazz musician is rising to the occasion,” says Jeannie Cheatham, who has risen repeatedly for 75 years. She started performing at age 5——after a piano arrived at her aunt and uncle’s house next door in Akron, Ohio——and hasn’t stopped since. In 1978, the jazz journey took the pianist and singer from points east to San Diego, where she and her late husband, trombonist and UCSD professor Jimmy Cheatham, formed the Jazz Society of Lower Southern California and led countless jam sessions with their Sweet Baby Blues Band.

Though the show goes on without him——the group earned a 10-minute standing ovation in May at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as part of the 12th annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival——Cheatham says she realized on the way home they were the only working group in the world still playing the Kansas City blues style. And the composer of the lively “Meet Me with Your Black Drawers On”——also the title of her 2006 autobiography, which comes with a CD including that hit——and more than 200 other songs (“I started late,” she explains) believes that sound will fade into memory once she stops driving it with her piano pedals.

Not that she plans to give up the bench anytime soon. The 80-year-old longtime La Jollan plays occasional gigs, out of town and in San Diego, and puts in appearances at events such as UCSD’s Geisel Library exhibit saluting Cheatham, which will feature readings from her book and live music January 6. The exhibit is on display January 6-31.

Such occasions help keep the sparkle in her eye and the joy in her step. Music obviously keeps her young. Over her lifetime, the versatile Cheatham has performed with a long list of greats (among them Big Mama Thornton and Cab Calloway), who share the same opinion of her skills. Playing with musicians is like a spiritual experience, she says: “We have an uncommon faith.”

That faith sustained her through years of struggling to make it past the barriers her black skin brought with it, helped her triumph over a battle with agoraphobia and keeps her going despite the sadness of losing her music partner and husband of 47 years, Jimmy, in January, and then her son less than two months later. She’s the embodiment of the Sweet Baby Blues Band’s motto, “Nobody goes home feeling bad,” and lives her life with no regrets. Her ability to be happy about things little and large keeps her balanced, she says, and constantly aware of the awe of what she and every collaborative musician does: “They make dreams out of air.”

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