Cab Calloway II (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was a regular executor at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and entertainment won him acclaim during a career that covered over 65 years.
Calloway was a master of peppy scat singing and led one of the most current dance bands in the United States from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. His band included trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Jonah Jones, and Adolphus “Doc” Cheatham, saxists Ben Webster and Leon “Chu” Berry, guitarist Danny Barker, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Cozy Cole.
Calloway had numerous hit records in the 1930s and 1940s, making him the first African-American musician to sell one million copies of a record. He became known as the “Hi-de-ho” man of jazz for his most famous song, “Minnie the Moocher”, originally recorded in 1931. He grasped the Billboard charts in five uninterrupted decades (1930s–1970s).
Calloway also made several stage, film, and television entrances until his death in 1994 at the age of 86. He had roles in Stormy Weather (1943), Porgy and Bess (1953), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), and Hello Dolly! (1967). His career relished a marked revival from his advent in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers.
Early life
Cabell Calloway III was born in Rochester, New York, on December 25, 1907, to an African American family.[9] His father, Cabell Calloway Jr., advanced from Lincoln University of Pennsylvania in 1898. His mother, Martha Eulalia Reed, was a Morgan State College graduate, teacher, and church organist,[10][11] and worked as a solicitor and in real parkland. The family stirred to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1919.[12] Soon after, his father died and his mother re-wedded to John Nelson Fortune.[13]
Calloway grew up in the West Baltimore neighborhood of Druid Hill. He often gamboled school to earn money by selling reporters, shining shoes, and cooling down horses at the Pimlico stadium where he developed an curiosity in racing and gambling on horses.[14][15] After he was caught playing dice on the church steps, his mother sent him to Downingtown Industrial and Agricultural School in 1921, a reform school run by his mother’s uncle in Chester County, Pennsylvania.[15] Calloway resumed bundling when he returned to Baltimore and worked as a caterer while he improved his schooling in school.
He began private vocal lessons in 1922, and studied music throughout his formal schooling. Despite his parents’ and teachers’ displeasure of jazz, he began performing in discotheques in Baltimore. His mentors involved drummer Chick Webb and pianist Johnny Jones. Calloway joined his high school basketball team, and in his senior year he started playing professional basketball with the Baltimore Athenians, a team in the Negro Specialized Basketball League.[16] He advanced from Frederick Douglass High School in 1925.
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Music career
In 1927, Calloway joined his older sister, Blanche Calloway, on tour for the popular black melodious revue Homestead Days.[13] His sister became an gifted bandleader before him, and he often credited her as his inspiration for entering show business.[18] Calloway’s mother wanted him to be a lawyer like his father, so once the tour ended he enrolled at Crane College in Chicago, but he was more interested in whistling and pleasurable. While at Crane he refused the opportunity to play basketball for the Harlem Globetrotters to pursue a singing career.[15]
Calloway spent most of his nights at Chicago’s Dreamland Café, Sunset Cafe, and Club Berlin, performing as a singer, drummer, and master of formalities.[13] At Sunset Cafe, he was an understudy for singer Adelaide Hall. There he met and performed with Louis Armstrong, who taught him to sing in the scat style. He left school to sing with the Alabamians band.[19]
Personal life
In January 1927, Calloway had a daughter named Camay with Zelma Proctor, a fellow student. His descendant was one of the first African-Americans to teach in a white school in Virginia.Calloway married his first wife Wenonah “Betty” Conacher in July 1928. They adopted a daughter named Constance and in 1949 Calloway married Zulme “Nuffie” MacNeal on October 7, 1949. They lived in Long Beach on the South Shore of Long Island, New York, on the border with neighboring Lido Beach. In the 1950s, Calloway moved his family to Westchester County, New York, where he and Nuffie raised their daughters Chris Calloway (1945–2008) Cecilia “Lael” Eulalia Calloway and Cabella Calloway (1952–2023).
The Calloway family’s gifts to jazz and entertainment have been known with numerous awards
- Cab Calloway’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1990)
- Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2008)
- National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award (2008)
Conclusion
In conclusion, Cab Calloway II left a permanent mark on the jazz world, authentically carrying on his father’s legacy while forging his own unique path. Through his soulful performances, determined advocacy, and commitment to protecting the classic jazz sound, Cab II ensured that the Calloway name remained synonymous with excellence in music and entertainment. Though his life was cut short, his charities continue to inspire new competitors of jazz enthusiasts, cementing the Calloway family’s enduring influence on America’s rich cultural heritage. Cab Calloway II’s story serves as a testament to the transformative power of music, family, and legacy.
