Cab Calloway born 25 December 1907

Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and vaudeville won him acclaim during a career that spanned over 65 years. 

Born Cabell Calloway III in Rochester, New York, his mother was a teacher and church organist and his father was a lawyer. Cab Calloway's charm and vibrancy helped him become a noted singer and bandleader. He grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, where he first started singing, and where his lifelong love of visiting racetracks took hold. However, music was his passion and by 1922 he was taking vocal lessons and exploring jazz, After graduating high school in 1925, he followed his sister into nightclub work and even joined her on tour as a performer in the musical revue Plantation Days. When the tour ended, he briefly enrolled in law school at Chicago's Crane College. 

While performing at Chicago's Sunset Club, Calloway met Louis Armstrong, who tutored him in the art of scat singing (using nonsensical sounds to improvise melodies). In 1928, Calloway took over the leadership of his own band, the Alabamians. Ready for the next step in his career, he headed to New York the following year. That same year, upon Armstrong's recommendation, Calloway joined the trumpeter at Harlem's Connie's Inn as a replacement singer in the popular Connie's Hot Chocolates revue. The revue, which soon became a Broadway hit, featured songs written by Fats Waller and Andy Razaf, including the classic "Ain't Misbehavin'," showcasing Calloway and Armstrong. 

                                    

While singing in Connie's Hot Chocolates, Calloway joined the Missourians as their lead singer and in 1930 the group renamed itself the Cab Calloway Orchestra. The following year, they took over for a touring Duke Ellington as the headliner at Harlem's The Cotton Club and by 1932 had supplanted the Ellington Orchestra as the house band. From the early '30s until the late '40s, Cab Calloway's Orchestra was one of the biggest and most profitable bands in the country. Calloway hit the big time with "Minnie the Moocher" (1931), a No. 1 song that sold more than one million copies. The tune's famous call-and-response "hi-de-hi-de-ho" chorus — improvised when he couldn't recall a lyric — became Calloway's signature phrase for the rest of his career. 

With other hits that included "Moon Glow" (1934), "The Jumpin' Jive" (1939) and "Blues in the Night" (1941), as well as appearances on radio, Calloway was one of the most successful performers of the era. During the 1930s and 1940s, he appeared in such films as The Big Broadcast (1932), The Singing Kid (1936) and Stormy Weather (1943). In addition to music, Calloway influenced the public with books such as 1944's The New Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary: Language of Jive, which offered definitions for terms like "in the groove" and "zoot suit." He also hosted a 1940s radio program, The Cab Calloway Quizzicale, and penned a humorous gossip column for Song Hits magazine. The onset of World War II also kept him busy as the orchestra regularly performed for troops waiting to ship overseas. 

With the break-up of his orchestra in 1948, Calloway largely branched out on his own, touring England in 1955 and appearing in the film St. Louis Blues in 1958. However, he would periodically reassemble his orchestra for special occasions, notably tours of Canada and South America. He became active in musical theater, including starring in a 1953 staging of Porgy and Bess as Sportin' Life, a character composer George Gershwin partly based on the singer. There were also several studio albums, including 1959's Hi De Hi, Hi De Ho and a 1962 standards album Blues Makes Me Happy. He also appeared in an all-Black staging of Hello Dolly! with Pearl Bailey in 1967, as well as a production of The Pajama Game in the early '70s. He even toured with the Harlem Globetrotters, and his 1976 autobiography Of Minnie the Moocher and Me, hooked new legions of fans, as did his 1978 disco version of "Minnie the Moocher." 

In 1980, Calloway enjoyed a career revival after appearing in the hit comedy film Blues Brothers, in which he performed "Minnie the Moocher." More work followed, including filming a 1985 BBC concert special at The Ritz London Hotel, featuring original members of his orchestra. He also revived his Cotton Club act, touring the show alongside his daughter, singer Chris Calloway. He toured Europe in 1992. In 1993, he received the National Medal of Arts. 

Calloway suffered a stroke and died five months later from pneumonia on November 18, 1994 at the age of 86. Already a member of the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame, as well as the International Jazz Hall of Fame, he was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Calloway's accolades continued well into the 21st century: "Minnie the Moocher" was added to the Library of Congress in 2019, and he was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2020.

 (Edited from Biography, AllMusic & Wikipedia)