Hi-De-Ho Nightclub and Cab Calloway: Christmas in the City

Cab Calloway

New York City in the 1920’s and1930’s had a vibrant music scene, with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bing Crosby, Dizzy Gillespie…and then there was Cab Calloway, a most interesting and innovative musician.

Cab Calloway and the “Hi-De-Ho Nightclub"

Cab Calloway was bandleader of some of the most popular African American big bands in the 1920’s and 30’s, a ‘scat singer’ influenced by Louis Armstrong,  a dancer and choreographer, an actor, an innovator, and a pathfinder who helped break the color barrier in the music industry with his sheer talent, energy, and charisma.  Cab Calloway became identified with a jazz riff, "Hi-De-Ho" from the song, “Minnie the Moocher,” that he wrote for one of a series of Betty Boop animated shorts.

For a foot-tappin', smile-inducing intro to Cab, watch his performance of "Hi-De-Ho" on Sesame Street in 1978, with the Muppet backup band and singers.  Listen for how he uses  nonsense syllables or sounds, transforming his voice into an instrumental solo, a technique called "scat singing."  Cab's charisma draws you in, and his powerful voice, smooth delivery, and moves keep you there. Not bad for a guy over 70 years old at the time! (Click the following link to see the clip.)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esnDnIK2v1g&feature=related

Rotoscoping
Calloway not only wrote and sang the song "Minnie the Moocher", but he provided the dance choreography for the animation for the Betty Boop short film as well, through the innovation of “rotoscoping.” 

Rotoscoping is a technique where live-action movements are traced over, frame by frame, for use in animated films.  To see Cab Calloway performing legendary dance moves and then the corresponding dance in animation, click on this YouTube site.  By the way, if you think Michael Jackson invented the "moonwalk," watch this very closely…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQyQ4NprVA0

Cab Calloway at Harlem’s Cotton Club

Cab Calloway arrived in New York City in 1929, performing at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom, run by Chick Webb, legendary bandleader and drummer.  The next year Calloway and his band was hired to replace the touring Duke Ellington Orchestra at the famous hip jazz venue, the Cotton Club in Harlem.  NBC began recording twice-weekly shows from the Cotton Club, which raised Cab’s visibility in the public’s eye.  The bandleader became so popular that he was invited by Walter Winchell to be a guest artist on the “Lucky Strike” radio program, and he joined Bing Crosby in performance at the elegant Paramount Theater at 43^rd and Broadway.

Department 56, Christmas in the City
"Steppin' Out on the Town," 56.58885

Porgy and Bess, Sesame Street, and the Blues Brothers

In 1942 Cab returned to the Paramount Theater for a 2-week run, breaking all attendance records.  Throughout the rest of his life Cab performed, not only touring internationally, but appearing in a series of films and plays.  In 1950 Cab starred in the Broadway revival of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess,” playing “Sportin’ Life.” In 1965 he starred in the movie “The Cincinnati Kid” with Steve McQueen and Edward G. Robinson, and two years later joined an all-black cast in a revival of “Hello Dolly.”

In 1978, at the age of 71, Calloway was still vibrant and engaging, appearing in three episodes of Sesame Street, and then in the 1980 acclaimed film “The Blues Brothers” with Belushi and Aykroyd.  He died in 1994.  If you want to see what I am going to be like at age 81, check this out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqxzT4vXc1k&feature=related

A Final Note
In my very first blog I mentioned that I wield the power to create, in my villages, my conception of a perfect society.  In my Dickens village there are no fires or people with criminal proclivities, so I have no need for firemen or policemen.  In "Christmas in the Village," I would wish to create a society without racism or sexism, where talent and hard work would give a person success.  In my village, men and women would work with dignity, in a job with dignity, with no need to resort to drugs or other vices to make their life palatable.  This is not always the world Cab Calloway inhabited.