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One Of the Great Showmen Of the Past Century
One of the great showmen of the past century and a flamboyant, enthusiastic personality, Cabell "Cab" Calloway was a superior jazz singer: his vast range from a booming bass to a shrieking falsetto has not been surpassed by any other male jazz vocalist. The irrepressible Calloway first made it big in 1931 when he waxed "Minnie The Moocher" at a moment when he was fronting his orchestra regularly at New York's celebrated Cotton Club. A colorful character soon to become a household name, he enjoyed several additional hits over the following two decades, displaying his boundless energy and ingenious invention while fronting a top-notch orchestra that always sounded good and at one time or another featured jazz greats such as Doc Cheatham, Mario Bauza Jonah Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, Chu Berry or Ike Quebec.
Showcasing the great Cab Calloway in a variety of formats and environments, this splendid compilation of "soundies" and clips from the 1947 feature film Hi-De-Ho is testament to the master showman' talent. A fantastic performer, Calloway always managed to steal the show be it fronting his first-class big band in numbers such as "Foo A Little Boogaloo" or "Call Of the Jitterbug" or heading a crackerjack small group in "The Calloway Boogie," "St. James Infirmary," or the immortal "Minnie the Moocher".
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