Cab Calloway (born Cabell Calloway III) was one of the greatest Jazz performers. In the 1920’s, Cab worked with a band called The Alabamians while studying law at Chicago’s Crane College. Cab was the Master of Ceremonies and a singer. He later joined The Missourians which changed its name to Cab Calloway and His Orchestra. His band set trends and introduced a whole new vocabulary as they toured.
Cab (Cabell) Calloway III was born on December 25, 1907 in Rochester, NY to Cabell Calloway II, a lawyer, and Martha Eulalia Reed, a teacher and church organist. The family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, the original home of Cab Calloway’s parents. In 1908 Cab Calloway’s mother arranges for him to begin vocal lessons with Ruth Macabee, a former concert singer and family friend. In 1922 Cab Calloway entered Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore and studied voice where he also exceled in sports. He spent his spare time at local speakeasies and jazz clubs. His mentors were Chick Webb (drummer) and Johnny Jones (pianist). In 1927 Cab graduated from Douglas High School in Baltimore.
In 1930, he was hired to replace Duke Ellington at the exclusive Cotton Club in Harlem. His most famous song, Minnie the Moocher, was written in 1931 and sold over 1,000,000 copies. He was also known for the tunes Are You Hip To That Jive and Hi-De-Ho Man. His career included singing, songwriting, band leader and actor.
Calloway was an energetic and humorous entertainer whose performance trademarks included eccentric dancing and wildly flinging his mop of hair; his standard accoutrements included a white tuxedo and an oversized baton. He was a talented vocalist with an enormous range and was regarded as “the most unusually and broadly gifted male singer of the ’30s”
The band broke up in the 1940’s when bad financial decisions caught up with Cab. He would go on to appear on Broadway including an all-black Hello Dolly. In 1980, a new generation was introduced to 73-year-old Cab by way of the film The Blues Brothers.
Calloway helped establish the Cab Calloway Museum at Coppin State University (Baltimore, Maryland) in the 1980s. He continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86 on November 18, 1984.
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