Saturday, June 20, 2009

Cab Calloway performing Minnie the Moocher



Hello All. I am trying my first attempt at posting a video clip on my blog site. I chose Cab Calloway performing Minnie the Moocher, which in my opinion, is one of the best Big Band Jazz tunes that has stood the test of time. Cab Calloway had one of his homes less than a mile down the country road where my mother grew up during her childhood here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The house is now all grown over with vines, saplings, weeds, etc. and the once fine home is now just a derelict that has caved in on itself. Most people don't even know the home's legacy.

Cab was born on Christmas night, December 25, 1907, in Rochester, New York, but when he was 6-years-old, they moved to Baltimore, Maryland. After school, he sold newspapers, shined shoes, was a grocery store checker, waited tables, and walked horses at Pimlico Racetrack.

His parents hoped Cab would someday study law, but, by the time he graduated from high school at the age of 17, he had already made up his own mind to be an entertainer. In high school Cab played drums and sang with a small group. He had even performed on the vaudeville circuit with some kids from his school.

As we all know, Cab grew up and became a great world renowned musical success. The legal profession's loss, and the rest of the world's gain.

Enjoy
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownJune 20, 2009 at 11:35 PM

    I did enjoy it and agree it is one of the timeless classics. Is the internet amazing or what? To have gems like that at our fingertips, although I'm beginning to take it for granted, still impresses me.

    Congrats on your first video embedding. Now the sky's the limit.

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  2. microdotJune 21, 2009 at 2:46 PM

    Man, I love Cab Calloway...I remember seeing him when I was young and since then in movies and on You Tube.
    Somewhere, I posted a video of Danny Elfman performing Minnie The Moocher. The same Danny who does all the film music and The Simpsons theme music.
    He had a great band in Los Angeles in the 1970's called Oingo Boingo. They were very ecletic and played a lot of Calloway stuff.
    Danny dressed up as the devil in his version...

    Great post and personal story about Calloway.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Engineer of KnowledgeJune 21, 2009 at 7:51 PM

    Hello Mikeb,
    Thank you for the kind words and I hope to keep up the good work. I have to say that I learned a lot from reading Microdots site on how to develop a blog.

    Hello Microdot,
    I remember Oingo Boingo and they were on the edge of music. Goooooood Stuff. Thank you agiain my friend.

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