Cab Calloway is hands down my favorite artist of all time. Most people only know him from the Blues Brother's movie...one forgets that he was the voice of a generation. He wore Zoot Suits, and sang in the Cotton Club in what is now New York. Calloway promoted himself tirelessly, making use of cutting edge technology such as movies, and recordings, virtually inventing the recording industry as we recognize it today. Not the greatest jazz man of all time (that would be Dizzie Gillespie) but he was smart enough to hire Gilespie and Sachmo, and a hundred others who have all passed away from us by now.
Cab Calloway performed until he was 86...doing movies such as the Blues Brother's movie, and even a guest judge at the World Wrestling Federation. Which goes to show the guy never quit.
This clip from 1932 features Cab Calloway as the ghostly dancing walrus, and the cutest 'toon in the world, Betty Boop. Please take a moment, turn up the volume, and enjoy music from a world which is not much different from today.
http://www.archive.org/details/bb_minnie_the_moocher
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