“Of Minnie The Moocher & Me”: general overview

  Off Minnie The Moocher and Me est l’autobiographie de Cab Calloway, coécrite avec Bryant ROLLINS et publiée en 1976 par Thomas Y. Crowell Company. Plus de 250 pages pleines de vie, de jazz, de souvenirs plus ou moins « arrangés » pour l’occasion… et surtout une mine d’informations capitales pour bien connaître la vie de Cab Calloway mais aussi son époque et ses musiciens. Durant un an (soit jusqu’à la publication de The Hi-de-Ho Man d’Alyn SHIPTON, la première biographie importante sur Cab), The Hi de Ho Blog va vous « lire » ces mémoires exceptionnelles. Vous n’allez pas être déçus ! Read the full story →

Quizzicale: Cab Calloway’s radio show

  One of the greatest experiences Cab Calloway had on the ether waves was certainly the "Quizzicale Show." For more than a year, the show was broadcast across the country and gained a huge success with the black community. The only problem was precisely that it was a show with black musicians. After nearly a year, the show was dropped for lack of a sponsor. And yet, it really had it all together for success!   Read the full story →

Juke Box #5, november 1948 : Cab Calloway in a comics

In 1948, while his popularity was rather low and his concerts became downright rare, Cab Calloway enjoyed the limelights of the release of a short comic about him published by Famous Funnies editions. Entitled "Cab Calloway, dean of American jive", the 3 pages are ​​part of the Juke Box series published from March 1948 to January 1949. The whole series was about music. Many famous artists ​​appear: Spike Jones, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Peggie Lee, Tommy Dorsey, Mel Tormé, Xavier Cugat, Stan Kenton, Lena Horne, Bettie Hutton, Lionel Hampton, Johnny Mercer, Woody Herman, Al Jolson, Guy Lombardo, Buddy Rich, etc. and Cab Calloway of course! Read the full story →

Avis ANDREWS: The Sepia Prima Donna

Billed alternately in the ads as “Sepia Prima Donna”, “The Sepian Nightingale”, “Siren of Songs”, “Songbird of the South”, “Bundle of Blues”, “Popular and petite songbird”, “The aristocrat of song”, “The Broadway Favorite and Singing Sensation”, “Second to Marian Anderson” or “Greatest colored soprano” (sic). Still: if we had to rely on Cab Calloway’s autobiography to find out a little more about this singer who was the canary for the orchestra for more than 7 years, we wouldn’t get very far! The Hi De Ho Blog invistigated and tells you almost everything about a great singer (cousin of the singer and TV star Leslie Uggams) admired then and forgotten today. Read the full story →

“Kicking the Gong Around” & “Reefer Man”: what‘s your guess?

Les expressions argotiques employées dans les chansons de Cab Calloway sont parfois difficiles voire impossible à décrypter si l'on n'était pas dans l'époque, Noir ou musicien de jazz ! L'histoire raconte qu'Irving Mills insistait même pour ajouter encore plus d'argot dans les chansons de manière à ce que cela soit toujours plus "exotique" pour les bourgeois blancs qui assistaient aux revues du Cotton Club... Ce n'est pas par hasard si dès 1938 Cab Calloway sortit son Hepsters Dictionary qui recense toutes ces expressions (bon, c'était aussi pour faire la nique à Benny Goodman qui distribuait un petit dictionnaire du swing à son public). Read the full story →