The Early Years: 1930-34

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About The Early Years: 1930-34

Product Description Who was hip enough to headline at the Cotton Club in the 1930s and star in 'The Blues Brothers' movie in the 1980s'The list isn't long.As far as we know, it contains just one name: Bandleader/Singer/Entertainer Cab Calloway.How did he do it'The usual 'secrets' - personality, talent, style...perpetual hard work.And an insistence on fine musicians, schooled to perfection.And great big band jazz.This collection shows his early rise to fame. 'Explosive' is the word.The remastering is what you'd expect from JSP...near perfect.A new generation of Cab Calloway fans' Amazon.com As a young singer Cab Calloway was at his most exuberant, and The Early Years: 1930-1934 has plenty of that exuberance on offer. In 1930, just before his recording debut, he took over a powerful band called the Missourians, and their best soloists (R.Q. Dickerson on trumpet and Thornton Blue on clarinet) can be heard on the first of these four CDs, which includes a startling "St. Louis Blues" as well as the original version of the famous "Minnie the Moocher." Calloway, in spite of a rather nasal tone, was a technically gifted singer who approached songs with the improvising skills of a jazz musician. No doubt because of this he ensured that his bands always swung and contained soloists of character. His repertoire here mixes well-known songs such as "Somebody Stole My Gal" and "I've Got the World on a String" with obscure delights like "Black Rhythm" and "Eadie Was a Lady," but Calloway imparted a unique flavor to whatever he sang. The value of this bargain package is enhanced by the audio restoration work of the expert John R.T. Davies, who has extracted more sonic detail from these old recordings than one would have thought possible. --Graham Colombé