Hi-de-ho: The Life of Cab Calloway

by Alyn Shipton

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199931743
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/12/2013
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 6.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About 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.

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

Editorial Reviews

"Mr. Shipton's excellent book should convince many readers and, I hope, some critics, that it might be time to experience Calloway's recordings and movies again, and try to discover, in part at least, what the hi-de-ho-ing was all about."—William F. Gavin, The Washington Times

"I met Cab Calloway at Eddie Condon's club—he lit up the room by his presence and I can understand why everyone loved the man. Alyn Shipton captures Cab's spirit in his biography Hi-De-Ho; every page is filled with anecdotes about Cab and his music. Chu Berry, Ben Webster, and other well-known musicians spring from the pages. Not only does Shipton bring Cab Calloway to life, he makes the reader understand the era in which he lived. For a short time, we enter his world, and what a world it was."—Marian McPartland OBE, jazz pianist, writer, composer, radio host (Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz)

"If you think Cab Calloway was just a show-off chanting 'Hi De Ho' and shaking his hair, think again. Thanks to Alyn Shipton, we now have an entirely new and convincing portrait of the singer/bandleader/actor. Thoroughly researched and engaging, Shipton's book has enlightened us with the complete story of this important artist." —Krin Gabbard, author of Hotter Than That: The Trumpet, Jazz, and American Culture

"Hi-De-Ho delivers! Beautifully written and multifaceted—this revealing biography crystalizes the transformative power of Cab Calloway's groundbreaking genius. In a manner as universal and inspiring as the legend portrayed, Shipton highlights the breadth and impact of my grandfather's continuing legacy."—Christopher Calloway Brooks, Director, The Cab Calloway Orchestra

"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. An essential purchase for any jazz or popular music collection."—Library Journal

"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

"Shipton, for his part, is an enthusiastic advocate, not just for Calloway but also for the mostly forgotten instrumentalists who worked in his orchestra over the years. Yet his analysis of the recordings tends to be astute, and is the high point of this book. All celebrity musicians should be blessed with such a sympathetic listener for a biographer." —The Weekly Standard

"This formidable book opens the door for future books on Calloway's enduring influence."—The Week

"Recommended for any music fan, particularly to those of us who had our first glimpse of Calloway in the 'Blues Brothers' movie." —The Herald Sun

"Enlightening. Thorough. This is the first real biography of an important cultural icon...Shipton describes how the Sesame Street producers saw potential in his attire and scatting vocalizations as he did 'commercials' for numbers and letters. Cab jumped in enthusiastically. In The Blues Brothers he plays a janitor who, through movie magic, suddenly turns to Hi-De-Ho'ing while the Brothers are evading the police. As Shipton describes these moments, you're there." —JJA News

"It is the great merit of Mr. Shipton's richly documented, well-written, and musically informed 'Hi-De-Ho' that he makes a convincing case for Calloway as an unjustly neglected entertainer...Mr. Shipton's excellent book should convince many readers and, I hope, some critics, that it might be time to experience Calloway's recordings and movies again, and try to discover, in part at least, what the hi-de-ho-ing was all about." —The Washington Times

From the Publisher

[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

Jonathan Yardley

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.

Library Journal

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.

Kirkus Reviews