Cab Calloway

Cab Calloway was an influential singer and actor in the 1930's. Born in Rochester, NY, on December 25, 1907, he started from rock bottom and worked his way up, until he was discovered and on top. To get to the top, Cab was a part of many different scenes and had much help from family and friends. According to Dan Gediman, Cab was the "Hi De Ho" man, a legendary showman, gifted singer, bandleader, actor, and fashion setter. He was a larger than life figure, who was immortalized in cartoons and caricatures, was also the leader of one of the greatest bands of the Swing Era (Dan Gediman, "Cab Calloway"). Scott Yanow thought Cab was "One of the great entertainers," and Cab's name was a household one by 1932, and never really declined in fame (Scott Yanow, "Cab Calloway's Biography"). Cab grew up in Baltimore, and attended law school there briefly, before hit quit school and set off to try and make it as a singer and dancer. As a young man Cab was following his father's footsteps in becoming a lawyer, going to law school and studying law. Cab wanted to be an entertainer even though his family discouraged him. They thought that it would be more appropriate for him to become a lawyer like his dad. Although, at the time that he was going to law school, his sister, Blanche Calloway, was a popular singer and was producing and singing a few fine records before retiring in the mid 1930's (Yanow). Well, his sister Blanche who was a prominent singer of the time convinced Cab to put more of an effort into his entertainment career. So while Cab was attending law school in Chicago, he also moonlighted at local nightclubs as a performer. While performing in Chicago he met the famous trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong, who taught him to scat. According to the Schoumbrg Center for Research in black Culture scat singing in music is "a jazz vocal style using emotive, onomatopoeic, and nonsense syllables instead of words in solo improvisations on a melody". Scat has dim antecedents