Cab Calloway Music

This is a disappointing collection. Scatman Crothers only performs 4 songs on this whole disc, and they are recent numbers, not pieces from his Cotton Club heyday.

Likewise the Cab Calloway material. This is Cab in the 1970's, imitating Sammy Davis Jr., doing show tunes and Vegas Lounge numbers, an entirely forgettable performance. It's not terrible, but the title is terribly misleading-- neither artist ever sounded like *this* at the Cotton Club.
What was Laserlight thinking?

Oh.. they were thinking they could get away with it... avoid this release.

I had heard of Cab Calloway infrequently in my life and had always wondered about his music. I purchased the cd "Minnie The Moocher" and was so pleasantly surprised by just how talented he was, what a lovely voice. This cd is just so energetic and a whole lot of fun to listen to. It's a great for introducing one to the music of Cab Calloway and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I am now a fan and plan to purchase more of his cds.

This collection is only so-so. The first six selections are standard Cab Calloway tunes like Minnie the Moocher and Jumpin' Jive: good stuff, but easy to find. The last four are very cheesy late recordings. The liner notes are essentially non-existent, just a list of titles and playing times. Jungle King is listed erroneously as Jungle Swing.

I had heard of Cab Calloway infrequently in my life and had always wondered about his music. I purchased the cd "Minnie The Moocher" and was so pleasantly surprised by just how talented he was, what a lovely voice. This cd is just so energetic and a whole lot of fun to listen to. It's a great for introducing one to the music of Cab Calloway and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I am now a fan and plan to purchase more of his cds.

This collection is only so-so. The first six selections are standard Cab Calloway tunes like Minnie the Moocher and Jumpin' Jive: good stuff, but easy to find. The last four are very cheesy late recordings. The liner notes are essentially non-existent, just a list of titles and playing times. Jungle King is listed erroneously as Jungle Swing.

Cab is great, but not here. Minnie is eviscerated, the rest are rather sluggish.

And Spivak, well I knew the name but had never heard him before. And won't again. This is generic MOR dance music that would be perfectly at home as blah-blah background in some mediocre 40s movie. The guys can play, but the whole sound is just kinda sleepy and dull. No fire, no zip, and a bland vocalist combine for instantly forgettable material.

Save your dough, however little they want, for something with the flash that made this an era of memorable tunes. This is 32 minutes of decidedly second-rate stuff.

I'm aware that these are very old recordings (1937-39 vintage) but there really is a TON of hiss on this CD. That, plus the fact that the overall signal level is low (it's "quiet" compared to other CDs of the era I've heard) make it not a great buy.

If you've been looking at this because of the specific tracks on it, every one of these is available on a 4 CD JSP box set (for $28.98 new, about $21 used) called EARLY YEARS (ASIN B000095IY9) and the sound is better if you compare sound samples.

If you're new to Cab and don't want to plunk down the dough for a multi-disc set, the best single disc compilation I've heard thus far is ARE YOU HEP TO THE JIVE? (ASIN B0000029FN). That one is a fantastic selection of songs with informative liner notes, good sound, and a few interesting rarities.

BOTTOM LINE: By all means get some Cab Calloway for your collection but don't buy THIS particular CD.

This is the first of four Cab Calloway compilations I bought, and it reigns as my favorite. This series starts off with Calloway's coolest rendition of "Minnie the Moocher," followed by "Beale Street Mama," one of those hep songs with an upbeat melody but sorrowful lyrics. Why this tune didn't make the rounds on more Cab Calloway compilations puzzles me; his rendition is one of those great examples of Calloway's smooth yet rambling vocals.

"Minnie the Moocher's Wedding Day" is an awesome follow up to the original tune. This works opposite the "Beale Street Mama" tune: Calloway sings about Minnie's upcoming wedding in wealthy spectacular description, yet there is something haunting - almost funereal- in the melody. This seems like one of those songs that many would cover, but without Calloway and his orchestra's sweet touch, it would lose the overall little spirit.

The majority of songs on this CD are all-around upbeat numbers like "Wake Up and Live" and "Dinah." These are some of those happy-go-lucky melodies that have the magic touch of entering your cerebral database, leaving you humming the melody as you go about your day.

While this is my favorite Cab Calloway CD, there is a diverse selection of compilations that are just as solid; this just happens to be my personal pick. I would highly recommend it if you want to get a diverse sampling of his work.

this is a great CD, although the compilation on the CD "Are You Hep To The Jive" is just a wee bit better.........fortunately, the only song that is on both of them is Minnie the Moocher, so if you get them both, you've got a lot of great stuff.

I never really liked Jazz until I heard Cab Calloway's Minnie the Moocher. Now that I've heard the rest of his songs, I'm starting to consider Jazz.

I am a big fan of big band and jazz music, but I must admit I never really collected any music by Cab Calloway. However, last week I saw the movie "The Blues Brothers"(1980), which featured Calloway singing part of "Minnie The Moocher". I had get a CD of Calloway, and this one was it!

This is the PERFECT CD for the casual Cab Calloway listener, and the price is great as well! The highpoint of the CD was Calloway's 1942 version of "Minnie The Moocher" which is his best version. It is also interesting to hear a great version of the Duke Ellington theme "Take The A-Train". Take it from me, I am not the biggest Cab Calloway fan, but this is the CD to get for the essentials of this jazz great...

Spanning a 20 year period, from the end of the roaring 20's to the end of WWII - this is a great collection of music that well represents the period. The quality of the recordings is very good and much appreciated!

The majority of the selections on COTTON CLUB DAYS date back to the pre-big band era of the late 1920s and early '30s. Those were the glory times of that famous Harlem nightspot, when orchestras fronted by Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Don Redman (conspicuously absent from this set), and others performed there regularly for an almost totally white audience.

The tracks on this collection have been dubbed from LPs, rather than the original 78s. This in itself isn't a detriment, however the records have echo added, and a few also have some obvious groove distortion. The album's liner notes give running times and personnel for all songs; recording dates are included for most, as well.

Despite the less than perfect source material, COTTON CLUB DAYS is still an interesting mix of 16 songs that celebrate one of the best-ever venues for fine jazz music.

This CD has a good variety of songs from early Cab Calloway to later. Some of the songs, such as Minnie the Moocher, sound like they're sung by an older Cab. I like the older Calloway because his voice is smoother and mellower than in his earlier verions.

While in a local music store, the classy cover to this CD caught my eye. Realizing it was a compilation of Mr. Calloway's (also includes work by Dixon, Caston, and Liggins) works, I decided to take the CD home with me. Upon listening to it, I was struck by two thoughts. Number One: This CD (as another reviewer on this page wrote) seems to have recordings of Calloway at several points in his career, both early and towards the end. Number Two: The quality of the recordings is an unfortunate side effect of time. Listening to this CD is comparable to listening to many of the original records (from which they apparently came from). I found that much of this can be compensated for by playing this recording at a slightly higher than normal volume. These recordings were enhanced to provide better sound quality, but even this technology has limits as to how much it can repair. I recommend listening to the sample music provided further up on this page before purchasing the CD. It will give you some idea as to what I mean when referring to the sound quality.

These tracks, all apparently re-mastered from old shellacs, were recorded between 1937 and 1939. All of Calloway's major soloists from that time come to the fore, most notably, as the subtitle suggests, Chu Berry on tenor, but also Chauncy Haughton on clarinet and Mario Bauza on trumpet. Dizzy Gillespie played on some of these 78's but I wouldn't swear that he takes any solos.
In addition to the excellent soloing, listeners will experience the tight, powerful swing of this band in what to my ears is its heyday (though Calloway himself said that his band of the early & mid Forties was even better), as well as a bit of the leader's famous hamming, on pieces such as "Geechie Joe".