"Hi
de hi de hi de ho!" When that clarion call pierced the air, you
knew a rousing time was about to be had. Cab Calloway was a force of
nature. When he appears in movies, one simply cannot take your eyes
away....even with that delectable Lena Horne in the same frame.
Charisma
and creativity, energy and elegance all dressed up in white on white
double breasted zoot suit with looping gold chain.
Calloway
led one of the most popular African American big bands during the
jazz and swing eras of the Harlem Renaissance in the '30's and '40's.
PBS's “American Masters” will premiere 'Cab Calloway: Sketches' beginning Monday February 27 at 10 pm.
PBS's “American Masters” will premiere 'Cab Calloway: Sketches' beginning Monday February 27 at 10 pm.
Mobsters
owned the Cotton Club. Cab and his band were “invited” to sub
for Duke Ellington when the latter was on tour, being given the
infamous Mafia 'offer'. Suddenly, the young Calloway (barely 23 in
early 1930) was the new star, the chic place for rich, white people
to enjoy the twin thrills of slumming in Harlem and taking in the
elegant, sexy revues performed by stunning and scantily clad black
showgirls. He soon became the darling of journalists and of New
York’s nightlife. The radio quickly caught on to the phenomenon,
broadcasting his shows three times a week. The United States had
discovered Cab Calloway, and he was an overnight success.
Calloway
lived in a segregated world. At The Cotton Club blacks could only
perform, not attend. His was one of the first bands to tour the
segregationist South, suffering through the indignities of Jim Crow.
He finally demanded his own Pullman car.
The
song “Minnie The Moocher” with its endlessly scatted chorus of
“Hi de ho”, Calloway became the first black performer to sell a
million copies of a 78 rpm record. Oddly enough, the upbeat-sounding
song actually tells the tale of a poor girl under the thumb of a pimp
who cares more about coke than love. The lyrics, emanating from the
primordial core of Calloway, perhaps are never fully absorbed.
The
PBS show explores Calloway's musical beginnings and milestones in the
context of the Harlem Renaissance including period footage of that
era of segregation.
The
Broadway composing master of them all, George Gershwin, modeled the
character Sportin' Life after Calloway. In 1952 he sang that part in
a production and toured for two years.
He
had his own Renaissance with “The Blues Brothers” in 1980.
Calloway influenced Michael and Janet Jackson, Prince, Alicia Keys
but others that you might not consider: present day hip-hoppers!
The
biopic includes interviews of Cab's daughters, Cecilia and Camay, one
of whom lives in Hockessin and continues a presence at Cab Calloway
School of The Arts.
Aisle
Say suggests you see this show on PBS. Additionally, if there is one
movie that captures ALL the Afro American performers of that glorious
age, it's Stormy
Weather
(1943). The history of jazz is brought to life with Bill “Bojangles”
Robinson, Fats Waller, Lena Horne, and in the grand finale, Cab
Calloway, surrounded by celebrated tap dancers the Nicholas Brothers.
Wow! While Horne's “Stormy Weather” makes every male wish he was
snuggling up with her on that wet and wild night, the Nicholas
Brothers dancing sequence down that staircase is extraterrestrial.
One
assumes there will be a universal home work assignment at Cab on
Friday the 24th!
PBS.
Monday, February 27, 2012, 10:00-11:00 pm. ET; repeat. Friday,
March 2, 2012, 9:00-10:00 pm. ET
No comments:
Post a Comment