Cabell "Cab" Calloway III
(December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was a famous American jazz singer and bandleader.
Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s. Calloway's band featured performers including trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, New Orleans guitar ace Danny Barker, and bassist Milt Hinton. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86.
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CAB CALLOWAY ORCHESTRA TICKETS
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Biography
Early years
Calloway was born in a middle-class family in Rochester, New York, on Christmas Day 1907 and lived there, until 1918, on Sycamore Street. He was later raised in
Baltimore, Maryland. His father, Cabell Calloway II, was a
lawyer and his mother, Martha Eulalia Reed, was a teacher and church organist. When Cab was young, he would enjoy singing in church.
[1] His parents recognized their son's musical talent and he began private voice lessons in 1922. He continued to study music and voice throughout his formal schooling. Despite his parents' and vocal teachers' disapproval of jazz, Calloway began frequenting and eventually performing in many of Baltimore's jazz clubs, where he was mentored by drummer
Chick Webb and pianist Johnny Jones.
After graduating from
Frederick Douglass High School Calloway joined his older sister,
Blanche, in a touring production of the popular black musical revue
Plantation Days
(Blanche Calloway herself would become an accomplished bandleader before her brother did and he would often credit his inspiration to enter show business to her). Calloway attended
Lincoln University in Pennsylvania but left in 1930 without graduating.
When the tour ended in Chicago in the fall, Calloway decided to remain in Chicago with his sister, who had an established career as a jazz singer in that city. His parents had hopes of their son becoming a lawyer like his father, so Calloway enrolled in
Crane College.
His main interest, however, was in singing and entertaining, and he spent most of his nights at the
Dreamland Ballroom, the
Sunset Cafe
, and the
Club Berlin
, performing as a drummer, singer and
emcee.
At the Sunset Cafe he met and performed with
Louis Armstrong who taught him to sing in the "scat" style.
Success
The
Cotton Club was the premier jazz venue in the country, and Calloway and his orchestra (he had taken over a brilliant but failing band called "The Missourians" in 1930) were hired as a replacement for the
Duke Ellington Orchestra while they were touring. Calloway quickly proved so popular that his band became the "co-house" band with Ellington's and his group began touring nationwide when not playing the Cotton Club. Their popularity was greatly enhanced by the twice-weekly live national
radio broadcasts on
NBC at the Cotton Club. Calloway also appeared on
Walter Winchell's radio program and with
Bing Crosby in his show at the
Paramount Theatre
. As a result of these appearances Calloway, together with Ellington, broke the major broadcast network color barrier.
Unlike many other bands of comparable commercial success, Calloway's gave ample soloist space to its lead members and, through the varied arrangements of
Walter 'Foots' Thomas, provided much more in the way of musical interest.
In 1931 he recorded his most famous song, "
Minnie the Moocher". That song and "
St. James Infirmary Blues" and "The Old Man Of The Mountain" were performed for the
Betty Boop animated shorts
Minnie the Moocher
,
Snow White
and
The Old Man of the Mountain
, respectively. Through
rotoscoping, Calloway not only gave his voice to these cartoons but his dance steps as well. He took advantage of this and timed his concerts in some communities with the release of the films in order to make the most of the attention. As a result of the success of "Minnie the Moocher" he became identified with its chorus, gaining the nickname "The Hi De Ho Man". He also performed in a series of short films for Paramount in the 1930s (Calloway and Ellington were featured on film more than any other jazz orchestras of the era). In these films, one can see him "
moonwalking" fifty years before
Michael Jackson. The 1933 film,
International House featured Calloway performing his classic song, "Reefer Man," a tune about a man who favors
marijuana cigarettes.
[2]
Calloway was one of the most popular African American jazz bands of the 1930's, recording prolifically for
Brunswick and the
ARC dime store labels (Banner, Cameo, Conqueror, Perfect, Melotone, Banner, Oriole, etc.) from 1930-1932, when he signed with Victor for a year. He was back on Brunswick in late 1934 through 1936, when he signed with manager
Irving Mills's short-lived
Variety in 1937, and stayed with Mills when the label collapsed and the sessions were continued on
Vocalion through 1939 and then
OKeh through 1942. After the recording ban due to the
1942-44 musicians' strike, he continued to record prolifically.
In 1941 Calloway fired
Dizzy Gillespie from his orchestra after an onstage fracas erupted when Calloway was hit with spitballs. He wrongly accused Gillespie, who stabbed Calloway in the leg with a small knife.
[3]
In 1943 he appeared in the high-profile
20th Century Fox musical film,
Stormy Weather
.
In 1944
The New Cab Calloway's Hepsters Dictionary: Language of Jive
was published, an update of an earlier book in which Calloway set about translating
jive for fans who might not know, for example, that "kicking the gong around" was a reference to smoking
opium.
Later years
In the 1950s Calloway moved his family from Long Island, New York, to
Greenburgh, New York, to raise the three youngest of his five daughters.
In his later career Calloway became a popular personality, appearing in a number of films and stage productions that utilized both his acting and singing talents. In 1952 he played the prominent role of "Sportin' Life" in a production of the
Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess
with
William Warfield and
Leontyne Price as the title characters. Another notable role was "Yeller" in
The Cincinnati Kid
(1965), with
Steve McQueen,
Ann-Margret and
Edward G. Robinson.
In 1967 Calloway co-starred as
Horace Vandergelder
in an all-black revival of
Hello, Dolly!
(even though the original production was still running) starring
Pearl Bailey. This was a major success and led to a cast recording released by
RCA. In 1973–1974 he was featured in an unsuccessful Broadway revival of
The Pajama Game
alongside
Hal Linden and Barbara McNair.
1976 saw the release of his autobiography,
Of Minnie The Moocher And Me
(Crowell). It included his complete
Hepsters Dictionary
as an appendix.
Calloway attracted renewed interest in 1980 when he appeared as a supporting character in the film
The Blues Brothers,
performing "
Minnie the Moocher", and again when he sang "The Jumpin' Jive" with the Two-Headed Monster on
Sesame Street
.
[4] This was also the year the cult movie
Forbidden Zone
was released, which included rearrangements of, and homages to, Calloway songs written by
Danny Elfman, a Calloway fan.
Calloway helped establish the Cab Calloway Museum at Coppin State College (Baltimore, Maryland) in the 1980s and Bill Cosby helped establish a scholarship in Calloway's name at the New School of Social Research New York City. In 1994 a creative and performing arts school, the
Cab Calloway School of the Arts, was dedicated in his name in
Wilmington, Delaware.
In 1986 Calloway appeared at
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s
WrestleMania 2
as a guest judge for a boxing match between
Rowdy Roddy Piper and
Mr. T that took place
Nassau Coliseum. Also in 1986 he headlined to great success a gala ball for 4,000 celebrating the grand opening of one of the top hotels in the US at the time, the Dallas-based Rosewood Hotel Co.'s Hotel Crescent Court in Dallas, Texas. In 1990 he made a cameo in
Janet Jackson's video for "
Alright". In the
United Kingdom he also appeared in several commercials for the
Hula Hoops snack, both as himself and as a voice for a cartoon (in one of these commercials he sang his hit "Minnie The Moocher"). He also made an appearance at the Apollo Theatre.
Death
In May 1994, Calloway suffered a stroke. He died six months later on November 18, 1994. His body was
cremated and his ashes were given to his family.
Honor
In 1998, The Cab Calloway Orchestra (directed by Calloway's grandson C. "CB" Calloway Brooks)
[5] was formed to honor his legacy on the national and international levels.
Selected awards and recognitions
Grammy history
|
Year
| Category
| Title
| Label
| Result
| Notes
|
2008
| Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
|
|
| Honoree
|
1999
| Grammy Hall of Fame Award
| Minnie the Moocher
| Brunswick (1931)
| Inducted
| Jazz (Single)
|
Other honors
|
Year
| Category
| Title
| Result
| Notes
|
1987
| Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame
|
| Inducted
|
1967
| Best Performances
| Outer Critics Circle Awards
| Winner
| Hello, Dolly Musical
|
Stage appearances
- Porgy and Bess
(1953)
- Hello, Dolly!
(replacement in 1967)
- The Pajama Game
(1973)
- Bubbling Brown Sugar
(1976)
- Uptown...It's Hot!
(1986)
Filmography
Features:
- The Big Broadcast
(1932)
- International House
(1933)
- The Singing Kid
(1936)
- Manhattan Merry-Go-Round
(1937)
- Stormy Weather
(1943)
- Sensations of 1945
(1944)
- Ebony Parade
(1947)
- Hi De Ho
(1947)
- Rhythm and Blues Revue
(1955)
- St. Louis Blues
(1958)
- Schlager-Raketen
(1960)
- The Cincinnati Kid
(1965)
- The Blues Brothers
(1980)
Short Subjects:
- Minnie the Moocher
(1932)
- Snow-White
(1933) (voice)
- The Old Man of the Mountain
(1933)
- Betty Boop's Rise to Fame
(1934) (voice)
- Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho
(1934)
- Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party
(1935)
- Hi De Ho
(1937)
- Meet the Maestros
(1938)
- Caldonia
(1945)
- Basin Street Revue
(1956)
References
- www.notablebiographies.com
- Works of Cab Calloway, Jazz Artist.
- Shipton, Alyn. Groovin' High: The Life of Dizzy Gillespie p.74
- http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Two-Headed_Monster
- Calloway Orchestra