Artist description Concentrating mainly on a strong background of classic jazz and vocal improvisational (scatting), Cleve has started to incorporate rhythms of Africa and Brazil. Touring with the African percussion group Big Noise One he has developed a fresh approach of combining American jazz with traditional African instrumentation.Cleve's recent CD sampler contains original tunes written by New York guitarist, Tony Romano. These tunes have the flavor of Brazil creating a contemporary "smooth" jazz with a tropical twist.Cleve is currently seeking representation and label affiliation and can be seen regularly at Metronome Restaurant in New York.

Music Style contemporary "smooth" jazz with a tropical twist; classic jazz and vocal improvisational scatting

Musical Influences Take Six, Herbie Hancock, Earl Kiugh, Michael McDonald and Incognito

Similar Artists Take Six, Herbie Hancock, Earl Kiugh, Michael McDonald and Incognito

Artist History Born near Nashville, Tennessee, Cleve grew up surrounded by music and musicians. His mother Marie was a drummer with an African American big band that toured all around the world.Cleve's earliest years had more emphasis on playing drums until being noticed by his junior high school chorus teacher for his gift of voice. He was featured regularly as a soloist with chorus and soon entered into a smaller ensemble of madrigalians learning and performing early vocal music of Europe.Soon Cleve received numerous scholarships for vocal studies and studied intensely to learn a vocal technique that allowed for the development of an operatic tenor repertoire.Cleve honed his craft performing to audiences of thousands per day at a musical theatre complex in Nashville that thrust him into television, radio and print. It was at this time he was introduced to a hearty dose of American popular music from the period of the 1920s right up through contemporary. He was regularly featured in vocal interpretations of well-known voices as that of Nat Cole, Johnny Mathis, Louis Armstrong and such groups as the Ink Spots, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross and The Platters from earlier periods up to Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Stevie Wonder with choreographed production numbers taken directly from the Broadway stages.It was at this time Cleve included the study of dance and theatre and started to develop professional associations and relationships that continue still this day with friends on both coasts of the U.S. who work in the film industry, television., aboard cruise ships and on the Broadway stage.Just like his many of his peers at the time, Cleve set out for the coast, the east coast, New York City. He began to work in clubs and cabarets that included The Russian Tea Room, Maxim's, and the like soon receiving glowing reviews for his tribute to Nat King Cole entitled, "Unforgettable” years before everyone else even thought of touching this incredibly rich collection for a revisitation.…”I remember being at a Natalie Cole concert one night at Lincoln Center and she introduced for the first time her father's music along with a medley of Cole tunes performed by George Benson and I became so unnerved by the whole thing that I had to leave the theatre because I felt that all this was much too close to what I had been already doing for years at this point”…Cleve was nominated for three years running as Male Jazz Vocalist, alongside his friends John Pizzarelli, Jr. and Thos Shipley. He was presented by the Mabel Mercer Foundation’s Cabaret Convention.In 1993 The American Musical Theatre Festival produced Cleve’s show entitled “A King and A Duke” – a tribute to not only Nat but to one of Nat’s idols, Duke Ellington. He explored the connection of music that had been recorded by Nat and written by Ellington. The show was received with glowing praise from the critics and the public as well. It was touted as “the hottest ticket in town…the surprise hit of the season”.Cleve continued his work in cabaret and in clubs gaining the attention of the New York press while at the same time continuing his work with six different New York big bands swinging at supper clubs and major events.In 1995 Cleve was cast in a Lincoln Center production of Duke Ellington's Oueenie Pie with Mercer Ellington narrating the evening. He introduced Cleve as…"the premiere vocal interpreter of Duke Ellington music”. His work with Mercer included evenings just sitting around with drinks and listening and discussing the Duke Ellington approach to music and it seemed that Cleve's musical ideas jibed perfectly as his interpretations constantly demonstrate new and fresh ways of presenting America's classical musical form of what is known as jazz.This prompted the release of Cleve's CD "Duke Ellington Boulevard" containing three never before recorded Ellington tunes given directly to Cleve by Mr. Mercer Ellington only a couple years prior to his untimely passing. Cleve and Mercer had spoken many times about future recordings of Ellington music that is now archived at the Smithsonian. The CD has been awarded four stars by the jazz press and has continued to sell for the past five or so years since its initial release and remains in national distribution with sales abroad wherever Cleve has appeared.For the past several years Cleve has enjoyed great popularity in Japan. Recently being the subject of a television documentary and appearing twice in the last year at the Blue Note in Fukuoka Japan on a roster that included Take Six, Herbie Hancock, Earl Kiugh, Michael McDonald and Incognito.

Albums Island of Music

Location New York, NY - USA

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