By: Brooke Johnpier, Music Department Member
Cabell (Cab) Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader who was popular during the swing era and was best known for his special style of jazz and vaudeville that earned him a career that spanned over 65 years.
Cab was born on December 25, 1907, in Rochester, NY, to very well-to-do parents. In 1919, the family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where, unfortunately, his father would die soon after. His mother would get remarried quickly.
Cab grew up in the Druid Hill neighborhood of Baltimore and would often skip school to make money by doing jobs such as shining shoes, selling newspapers, and cooling down horses at the racetrack. The latter got him interested in horse racing and gambling.
Cab was playing dice on the church steps one day when he got caught. Because of that, his mom sent him to a reform school in Pennsylvania that his mother’s uncle ran. The school didn’t do much, as Cab went right back to what he was doing before he was sent away.
In 1922, Cab started private vocal lessons and began to study music in school. Even though everyone he knew disapproved of jazz, Cab began to perform in nightclubs in Baltimore, with the help of mentors Chick Webb and Johnny Jones. During this time, Cab would also get into playing basketball in high school.
5 years later, Cab joined his older sister, Blanche, for a tour of Plantation Days, which was a popular black music revue. Blanche got into the show business before Cab did, and Cab credits her with giving him the inspiration to go into the field he did. After that first tour though, Cab went to college to appease his mother’s dreams of him becoming a lawyer like his father. Cab didn’t like the lawyer stuff, and just wanted to perform on stage. He even turned down playing basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters to focus on his dream.
While he was in Chicago trying to make a name for himself, he met Louis Armstrong who got him some of his first gigs and taught him to sing “scat style. Cab ended up in New York City performing in the revue, Connie’s Hot Chocolates, when the band The Missourians asked him to front their band.
In 1930, The Missourians changed their name to Cab Calloway and His Orchestra. They were asked to perform at the Cotton Club in Harlem while Duke Ellington was on tour. They gained immense popularity during this time and would play twice a week for NBC radio broadcasts. Cab would also be the first African American to have a nationally syndicated radio show.
In 1931, Cab would record his most famous song, “Minnie the Moocher.” The song would be on an album that would make history by becoming the first single album to sell over one million copies by an African American artist. Cab would also perform that song, as well as “St. James Infirmary Blues,” and “The Old Man of the Mountain” in the Betty Boop cartoons Minnie the Moocher, Snow White, and The Old Man of the Mountain. He did voiceovers in these cartoons as well, and his dance steps became the characters’ movements.
During the rest of the 30’s, Cab performed in a series of short films for Paramount, and created the moonwalk that Michael Jackson would trademark later on. Cab claimed that the moonwalk was called the Buzz back in his day.
For the rest of his career, Cab performed in many movies, including the infamous Blues Brothers. He did well for himself but faced struggles due to his skin color. In 1945 in Kansas City, Missouri, Cab and his friend went to visit a fellow bandleader at a whites-only facility. Because of this, Cab and his friend were beaten by a police officer and arrested. They were taken to a hospital for injuries, and then they were charged with intoxication and resisting arrest. A few years later, Cab would be arrested in Leesburg, Virginia, while on the way to a horse race. He was charged with speeding and attempted bribery of a policeman.
Cab’s legacy and influence on artists like James Brown, Michael Jackson, and Drake is eminent. Cab did stuff back in the day that people never would’ve thought of doing, and because of him we have the music we have today, as well as some music that came before today. Unfortunately, Cab passed away on November 18, 1994, after complications due to a stroke.
Unfortunately, Cab’s childhood home was demolished in 2020 after everyone protested that it be restored to become a museum in his honor. Even though Baltimore officials proclaimed that they would make a budget for that to happen, it didn’t.
Cab Calloway was one of the best musicians to ever live. His talent in every aspect of the performing arts will never be matched. If you’ve never listened to him, I suggest you do. It will change your entire outlook on the music you know and love.
Want to share your thoughts? Have a band/artist you want to be featured? Email Brooke at johnpibl23@bonaventure.edu!
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