Cliff Leeman
American musician (1913–1986)
Cliff Leeman (September 10, 1913 – April 26, 1986) was an American jazz drummer. His nickname was "Mr. Time".
Leeman, born in Portland, Maine, United States, played percussion with the Portland Symphony Orchestra at age 13, and toured as a xylophonist on the vaudeville circuit late in the 1920s. He first made his name in the jazz world working in the swing bands of Artie Shaw (1938–39), Glenn Miller (1939), Tommy Dorsey (1939), Charlie Barnet (1940–43), Johnny Long, and Woody Herman (1943–44). After a stint in the Army in 1944, he worked with Don Byas, John Kirby (1944–45), Raymond Scott, Jimmy Dorsey, and Ben Webster.
He left the music industry briefly before joining the Casa Loma Orchestra in 1947, later moving on to Charlie Barnet's orchestra (1949) and Bob Chester's big band ensemble (1949–50). He played on radio and television in the 1950s, in addition to playing live often with Eddie Condon and Bobby Hackett. Later associations include Pee Wee Erwin, Yank Lawson/Bob Haggart, Ralph Sutton, Billy Butterfield, Bob Crosby (1960), Wild Bill Davison (1962), Dukes of Dixieland (1963–64), Peanuts Hucko, Joe Venuti, The Kings of Jazz (1974), Bud Freeman, Don Ewell, the World's Greatest Jazz Band (1976–77), and Jimmy McPartland. He recorded several albums for Fat Cat Jazz in the 1970s.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Cliff Leeman” as american musician (1913–1986). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american musician (1913–1986). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 24, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3148835. VIAF identifies the subject as 76500680. The Library of Congress control number is n93016679. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 1986, 1938 and 1939.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cliff Leeman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.