Hi-de-ho: The Life of Cab Calloway

( 51 )

Overview


Clad in white tie and tails, dancing and scatting his way through the "Hi-de-ho" chorus of "Minnie the Moocher," Cab Calloway exuded a warm charm and sophistication that endeared him to legions of fans. In Hi-de-ho: The Life of Cab Calloway, author Alyn Shipton sheds new light on Calloway's life and career, explaining how he traversed racial and social boundaries to become one of the country's most beloved entertainers. Drawing on first-hand accounts from Calloway's family, friends, and fellow musicians, the ...
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Hi-de-ho: The Life of Cab Calloway

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Overview


Clad in white tie and tails, dancing and scatting his way through the "Hi-de-ho" chorus of "Minnie the Moocher," Cab Calloway exuded a warm charm and sophistication that endeared him to legions of fans. In Hi-de-ho: The Life of Cab Calloway, author Alyn Shipton sheds new light on Calloway's life and career, explaining how he traversed racial and social boundaries to become one of the country's most beloved entertainers. Drawing on first-hand accounts from Calloway's family, friends, and fellow musicians, the book traces the roots of this music icon. Beginning in obscure Baltimore nightclubs and culminating in his replacement of Duke Ellington at New York's famed Cotton Club, the book shows how Calloway honed his gifts of scat singing and call-and-response routines. His career as a bandleader was matched by his genius as a talent-spotter, evidenced by his hiring of such jazz luminaries as Ben Webster, Dizzy Gillespie, and Jonah Jones. As the swing era waned, Calloway reinvented himself as a musical theater star, appearing as Sportin' Life in "Porgy and Bess" in the early 1950s; in later years, Calloway cemented his status as a living legend through cameos on "Sesame Street" and his show-stopping appearance in the wildly popular The Blues Brothers movie, bringing his trademark "hi-de-ho" refrain to a new generation of audiences.
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Editorial Reviews

Jonathan Yardley
[Shipton] makes a solid case for Calloway as a jazz musician as well as an entertainer, and he certainly makes you want to listen to "Minnie" and all the others, for the umpteenth time in my case and, it is to be hoped, for the first time in others'.
—The Washington Post
Library Journal
Jazz critic Shipton follows his biography of Dizzy Gillespie (Groovin' High) and his extensive A New History of Jazz with the first full-length biography of the iconic originator of "Minnie the Moocher." At the height of his popularity in the Thirties, vocalist-bandleader Cab Calloway was the most popular and most highly compensated African American entertainer in the country. His scat vocals influenced American music from Louis Jordan to Tupac Shakur, and his stage costumes defined fashion for a generation of hipsters around the world. Shipton presents in admirable detail Calloway's professional apex as Cotton Club headliner and leader of the foremost big band in the United States and reveals him as a superior artistic tactician. He also offers critical reconsiderations of Calloway's vocal and instrumental recordings, making a strong case for his inclusion as a musical innovator in the class of Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington. VERDICT With Calloway's private life as a secondary focus, this will be more compelling for fans of jazz and vintage popular music than for average readers. An essential purchase for any jazz or popular music collection.—John Frank, Los Angeles P.L.
Kirkus Reviews

Jive-spouting bandleader gets a long-overdue first full-length biography.

The Times (London) jazz critic Shipton (I Feel a Song Coming On: The Life of Jimmy McHugh, 2009, etc.) takes a sometimes overly detailed and not always revealing look at the antic "Hi-De-Ho" man Cab Calloway (1907–1994), who burst onto the national scene in the early '30s with his vocal hit "Minnie the Moocher." Raised in Baltimore, Calloway followed in the musical footsteps of his sister Blanche, who became a revue star at Chicago's Sunset Café, where Louis Armstrong also made his mark. Calloway quickly eclipsed his sibling with his extroverted singing and dancing—his players claimed that his bandleading relied more on miming than on musicianship—and he became a reigning hep cat in the early '30s at New York's Cotton Club. Within a few years, his band rivaled Duke Ellington's orchestra in popularity, and he achieved crossover fame through film appearances (and some vocal shots in Max Fleischer's Betty Boop cartoons). Calloway recorded prolifically through the late '40s, when changes in musical fashion forced him to lead a small combo. He installed himself as a cultural institution in the '50s and '60s with appearances on stage in Porgy and Bess and Hello, Dolly! and on film in The Blues Brothers. Shipton labors mightily to make a case for Calloway's abilities as a jazz leader whose groups included such great talents as Ben Webster, Milt Hinton and Gillespie (who was expelled after he cut his boss with a knife). However, it was Calloway's novelty vocals that made him famous, and the author's technical readings of recordings don't offer convincing evidence to the contrary. Too often the book sags under the weight of gig details and band itineraries, and Shipton ultimately fails to supply any sense of his subject's inner workings. Details of Calloway's personal and family life usually take a back seat to the progress of his musical career.

Readers get the scat but not the whole cat.

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780199931743
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • Publication date: 2/12/2013
  • Pages: 304
  • Sales rank: 586,536
  • Product dimensions: 9.00 (w) x 6.10 (h) x 0.90 (d)

Meet the Author

Alyn Shipton is the author of several award winning books on music including A New History of Jazz and Groovin' High: the Life of Dizzy Gillespie. He is jazz critic for The Times in London and has presented jazz programs on BBC radio since 1989. He is also an accomplished double bassist and has played with many traditional and mainstream jazz bands.

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Table of Contents

Introduction and acknowledgements
List of Illustrations Chapter 1: 1907-1927
Chapter 2: 1927-1930
Chapter 3: 1930-1931
Chapter 4: 1931-1933
Chapter 5: 1933-1934
Chapter 6: 1934-1937
Chapter 7: 1937-1939
Chapter 8: 1939-1941
Chapter 9: 1941-1948
Chapter 10: 1949-1970
Chapter 11: 1971-1994
Notes
Bibliography Index

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 51 )
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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 19, 2013

    Moss

    Oh

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 18, 2013

    DJ KRIS

    U guys enjoy ur dance and have fun

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 16, 2013

    Kelly

    Waits.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 9, 2013

    Jessie

    She swims a lap and gets out

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 2, 2013

    Brook

    Hi can i join.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 3, 2013

    Avalon

    *takes out an electric violin and plugs in her earbuds. She plays Elements*

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 5, 2013

    Claudia

    Does anyone here rp anyone in Thunderclan?

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 9, 2013

    Lizzy

    She swam underwater, lonely.-Liz

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    Posted March 2, 2013

    Dylan

    Sup

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 6, 2013

    Abby

    How about we play truth or dare? With two people.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 1, 2013

    I have not read it!

    I think it will be bad!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 1, 2013

    Vitani

    Mkay.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 6, 2013

    To lizzy

    Ya were at my lie res four

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 19, 2013

    nova

    I didnt vote yet. I want to make sure everone ses the voting rule stuff i posted

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 15, 2012

    To kimmy ( underneath zack)

    Hey yeah sure :) im so bored :( lol -sammy(samantha)

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 15, 2012

    Audraina

    Silently walks past

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 13, 2012

    Alice

    Erm hi

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    Posted October 11, 2012

    Elise

    Mine is adele

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    Posted October 10, 2012

    2GA2

    Hey this is a chat place, correct?

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