When It Comes to Jazz, This Baby is Really Sweet

Jimmy and Jeannie Cheatham, keepers of the Kansas City blues/jazz flame, are paying their annual visit to Elario’s this week. Wednesday night, the prolific playing and composing team opened five nights at the La Jolla club with their Sweet Baby Blues Band.

Earlier this year, the Cheathams were in Palo Alto to provide the music for a special collaboration with Zohar Dance Co. In April, the band played the New Orleans Jazz Heritage Festival. Coming this summer are jazz festivals in Toronto in June, several nights at the Blue Note in New York City in July and the Chicago Blues Festival in August, where the Cheathams share a bill with trumpeter Miles Davis.

Singer and bass trombonist Jimmy Cheatham, who heads the jazz program at U.C. San Diego, arranges all of the band’s charts. His wife Jeannie is known for her gutsy vocals, but she’s also a masterful piano player, capable of chorus after chorus of swinging improvisations.

The band receives heaps of coast-to-coast critical praise, both for its live dates and its albums, like last year’s “Back to the Neighborhood.”

Early in May, the band completed work on a new album. As always, there was a featured guest artist. Last time around, it was violinist Papa John Creach, and before that, Charles McPherson, Eddie (Lockjaw) Davis and Eddie (Cleanhead) Vinson. This year’s guest also has a nickname: guitarist Clarence (Gatemouth) Brown.

“We always wanted to record with Freddie Green, but he passed away before we could do it,” Jeannie Cheatham said. “We were looking for that combination of jazz and blues, like T-Bone Walker. We used Gatemouth sort of like a horn player. He did three songs with us.”

The album will be out in September.

The Cheathams’ band includes Red Callender on bass, John (Ironman) Harris on drums, Curtis Peagler on alto and tenor saxes, Jimmie Noone on tenor and soprano saxes, Nolan Smith on trumpet and Dinky Morris on baritone sax.

A series of Sunday jazz brunch cruises aboard the M.V. Entertainer begins this week with light jazz artists Special EFX and special guest Deborah Henson-Conant.

There’s a connection between the two; Special EFX co-leaders George Jinda and Chieli Minucci both play prominent roles in Henson-Conant’s newest album, “Caught in the Act.”

The series is billed as jazz, but the press material for Special EFX more accurately describes the band’s music as “pop instrumental.” The music of both Special EFX and Henson-Conant might best be described as a soothing sound track for living: pleasant melodies over light electronic backgrounds. Minucci’s melodic acoustic guitar work alone is well worth the trip.

Special EFX and Henson-Conant are among the many light jazz artists responsible for the amazing success of GRP Records, the wildly successful light jazz label founded by Dave Grusin, and acquired by MCA for $40 million last February.

M.V. Entertainer jazz brunches leave at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. from 1056 Harbor Drive, between the B Street and Broadway piers in downtown San Diego. For information, call (800) 262-4386.

This Sunday, jazz buff John Brophy’s Sunday swing sessions at L’Auberge Del Mar in downtown Del Mar continue with Don Randi and Quest, plus blues singer David Conrad.

Randi is a Los Angeles studio musician who has written movie scores and worked with Neil Diamond, Sonny and Cher, Diana Ross, the Four Tops, Paul Anka, Dean Martin, Cannonball Adderley, Phil Spector, the Supremes, Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Rick Nelson, Lou Rawls, Dionne Warwick, Trini Lopez, Sarah Vaughan and Jackie Wilson.

Randi also has recorded 18 albums of his own, including California ‘84, recently re-released on CD. He plays acoustic piano and electronic keyboards.

Between 3 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Randi and Quest will play two sets; Conrad, a Los Angeles architect who moonlights singing blues, will join the band for a few songs. Tickets are $15. Reservations are recommended (259-1515). Proceeds go to the Preuss Foundation for Cancer Research.

RIFFS: Venezuelan harpist Carlos Guedes leads his Latin jazz trio Desvio through 8 and 10:30 p.m. shows at Elario’s on Monday. Guedes studied both classical and Venezuelan folk music in Caracas. The group recently released its first album, “Churun Meru.” Guedes has played with Paquito D’Rivera, Najee, Tito Puente, Ray Charles, Earl Klugh and David Benoit. Guedes and Desvio also open for light jazz band Dotsero on Wednesday night at one of the Catamaran Resort Hotel’s “Rising Star” concerts. . . .

Saxophonist Gary LeFebvre’s big band plays Saturday from noon-2 p.m. in the Bayside Amphitheater behind the San Diego Convention Center. The band will also appear June 18, at the Salmon House restaurant on Mission Bay, and returns to the amphitheater July 1. LeFebvre promises several charts from his favorite arranger, Bill Holman. So far, he has acquired 53 Holman arrangements. . . .

Sunday from noon-2 p.m., Gene Perry leads the Afro-Rumba Orquestra at the Bayside Amphitheater, followed at 4 p.m. by the UCSD Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Jimmy Cheatham. . . .

Saxophonist Hollis Gentry works tonight through Saturday night at the B St. Cafe & Bar downtown. . . .

Jazz/blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon is the star of this week’s “Club Date” program on KPBS-TV, airing at 11 p.m. Friday and again at 11:30 p.m. Monday. . . .

French jazz musicians Martial Solal (piano), Michel Roques (sax), Patrice Caratini (bass) and Christian Escoude (guitar) will be featured Sunday night at 7 on “Le Jazz Club,” the French jazz program on KSDS-FM (88.3). . . .

On solo piano from noon-3:30 p.m. at Cafe Lautrec in La Jolla: Daniel Jackson today, Jack Wheaton on Friday, Eric Dries on Saturday, Forest Westbrook on Monday, Jackson again on Tuesday and Dries on Wednesday.