Cleveland 'Cleve' Eaton is a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, right there with Nat Cole, Wilson Pickett, Martha Reeves, Jerry Wexler, the Blind Boys of Alabama, and a few dozen other notables. "I don t play like nobody else", he told The Birmingham News when inducted in 2008. "I do my own thing. It s absolutely Alabama".
Eaton s Plenty Good Eaton, recorded in Curtis Mayfield s soul Chicago at Chess Recording Studio with local hired guns and first out in 1975, belongs to the r&b genre even though there are side paths into soul-jazz. The lushly arranged Chi-Town proceeds from a cloned Shaft introduction into a lushly produced funk romp with Eaton s upright bass guiding a chicken-scratch funk guitar, electronic keyboards, strings, horns, and a female singer or two. With Eaton s acoustic bass typically prominent in the mix, and with Ed Green s violin steering its melodic course, Keena exists as a happy union of r&b and disco. In spite of lame repetitive chants of its title, Moe, Let s Have a Party makes the right dance floor moves with a funk groove that popular bands like Rufus and the Ohio Players wouldn t mind claiming as their own.
Personnel: Bass: Cleveland Eaton, Electric Piano: Kenneth Prince, Guitar: Ernest Johnson, Organ, Electric Piano: Odel l Brown, Percussion: Morris Jennings, Percussion, Flute: Derf Raheen, Tenor Saxophone: Arie Brown, Tenor Saxophone, Flute: Artee Duke Payne, Edwin Daughtry, Trombone: John Watson, Trombone [Bass]: Steve Galloway, Vibraphone: Bobby Christian, Viol in, Viola: Ed Green.
Written and Arranged by Cleveland Eaton, except "Are You Out There Somewhere Caring" written by M. Anderson, C. Eaton
with special assistance from Ed Green & Morris Jennings
Special thanks to the late Terry Bashman and Peter Trunk, for making some of our music.
Produced by Eaton's Prod. Inc. (E.P.I.)
Recorded 15 Jul 1974 at Chess Recording Studio
Mixed Sigma Sound, Philadelphia, PA
P.S. My music and business idols are Maurice White "Mr. Earth Wind and Fire" Herbie Hancock "Mr. Jazz/Rock and Mr. Stevie Wonder.
![Cleveland Eaton - Are You Out There Somewhere Caring [1975]](media/video-thumbnail/94980-hqdefault.jpg)
