Hi-de-ho: The Life of Cab Calloway »

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, winning Jazz Broadcaster of the Year at the 2010 Parliamentary Jazz Awards in the UK. He is also an accomplished double bassist and has played with many traditional and mainstream jazz bands.

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 sly 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, from his childhood in Rochester, New York, to his life of hustling on the streets of Baltimore. Shipton highlights how Calloway's desire to earn money to support his infant daughter prompted his first break into show business, when he joined his sister Blanche in a traveling revue. Beginning in obscure Baltimore nightclubs and culminating in his replacement of Duke Ellington at New York's famed Cotton Club, 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 theatre 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.

More than any other source, Hi-de-ho stands as an entertaining, not-to-be-missed portrait of Cab Calloway—one that expertly frames his enduring significance as a pioneering artist and entertainer.

The Washington Post - Jonathan Yardley

[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'.

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