Cab Calloway’s
Legacy of Swing
 

Starring
Chris Calloway - Vocalist  
Chester Whitmore -   Dancer             
  Charon Aldredge - Dancer





and
Lafayette Harris Jr.
leading the 
Hi-De-Ho Orchestra
  Hi-De-Ho Orchestra  

 Trumpets                        Saxophones
  Bobby Burns                        Barry Bergstrom	
Eric Wright                          Frank Fontaine
Gerhard Cernek                       Corey Hogan
                                        Alex Harding	    	 	 	
    Trombones	                  Rhythm Section
  Wendell Kelly	                      Ida Bodin, bass
        John Lampkins	                Raymond Pound, drums

Cab Calloway
(1907 - 1994)
The "King of Hi-De-Ho," Cab Calloway began his entertainment career in law school. His sister, Blanche Calloway, famous in her own right as the first female big band leader of an all-male band, was instrumental in launching his career. She was a successful entertainer while Calloway was in high school. To make ends meet in law school, Calloway began moonlighting at a nightclub, first as an emcee and later as a vocal entertainer. At a Southside club, he met Louis Armstrong and eventually became the featured vocalist with the Alabamians, considered at the time to contain some of the best musicians of the period. In 1928, Calloway took over the leadership of the orchestra and after a successful run, found himeself in New York.
Soon after arriving in New York, Calloway landed a role in the Broadway show Connie's Hot Chocolates and began singing with the Missourians at the Cotton Club, Harlem's premiere nightspot, while subbing for the Ellington Orchestra. The attention the radio broadcasts brought him, coupled with the potential noticed by the owner of the Cotton Club, was enough to land Cab Calloway and the Missourians as the Cotton Club Band, replacing Duke Ellington, and launching Cab Calloway into stardom.
Famous for his showmanship and surrounded by great musicians, Calloway continued to perform throughout the 1940s, when his band included such legendary names as Jonah Johns, Russel Smith, Dizzie Gillespie, Lammar Wright, Cozy Cole, "Foots" Thomas, Tyree Glenn and Quentin Jackson. Later bands included Ben Webster and Chu Berry. In 1943, critic Barry Ulanov wrote, "How many people realize what a great band Calloway is leading right now, a band extraordinary in every aspect, in its clean musicianship, its jazz kicks and its brilliant showmanship. Here's one of the magnificent bands of our time!"
Calloway also sponsored radio shows featuring himself and his Hepster's Dictionary of Jive Talk. If a full career as a bandleader was not enough, Calloway was also prominently featured in the Big Broadcast motion picture series, which began in 1932. He appeared in a Jolson film The Singing Kid and played a part in Stormy Weather and Sensations.
Calloway gave up his bandleading career in the early 1950s to concentrate on musicals with occasional appearances on television. In the mid-1940s, he had a feature role in Porgy and Bess and toured the United States and Europe with the show. He finished up his film career with a part in the 1980 hit film The Blues Brothers, where he reprised his famous role of Minnie the Moocher. Calloway resumed his bandleading and orchestral appearances and was busy working almost to the end of his life; he died in 1994. Throughout his long career, the King of Hi-De-Ho never lost his charisma or energy.
Chris Calloway, vocalist. Singer/actress Chris Calloway is heir to an American musical legacy. Her father, Cab Calloway, was a world-famous legend with his unique big band sound and his skatty style of flamboyant jazz. The honoring of this rich and enduring musical tradition is the concept and heart of Calloway's current performance project, Cab Calloway's Legacy of Swing.
Calloway's career began on The Ed Sullivan Show with an introduction to the world by her dad some 30 years ago. Calloway spent many years performing with her father and his Hi-De-Ho Orchestra; together, as a father-daughter team, they toured the United States, Europe, South America, Japan and Australia. From her humble beginnings as a singing hat-check girl at New York's Improvisation, the Catskills Mountains circuit and a brief stint with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, her Broadway career began with the acclaimed all-black production of Hello Dolly!, starring Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway, followed by a significant nine-month tour with the musical review Eubie, and then on to Hollywood, where she hosted her own talk radio and music shows.
 
Erwin Washington, coordinator/director and co-writer of the Cab Calloway's Legacy of Swing, comes to the project as the co-founder and executive director of the Lula Washington Dance Theatre.
Lula Washington, founder and director of the Lula Washington Dance Theatre, has provided special choreography for Cab Calloway's Legacy of Swing. 








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