Calloway Boogie - Cab Calloway

The Snader telescription Calloway Boogie aka Cab’s Club (1950) starts right off with Cab Calloway dancing up a storm. A scaled down version of his band is seated behind him: Panama Francis on drum kit, Milt Hinton on doublebase, Jonah Jones on trumpet, Dave Rivera on piano. For this number, Jonah on trumpet is mightily highlighted. It’s a one-take live performance & Cab’s not perfectly miked, but it has that “no retakes“ realism to it that is a pleasure. The song however boils down to a fairly standard boogie woogie, with new words put to an old riff: “Here’s a little song I’d like to do for you/ Ain’t nothin’ to it, it’s easy to do/ Called the Calloway boogie. Calloway boogie/ Keeps you groovy twenty-four hours day.“ It’s really Jonah’s trumpet that saves the song from being a cookie-cutter number to the standard boogie beat. This song’s studio recording includes Cab’s entire band, & this scaled down version is actually a very lovely alternate, thanks to Cab’s major sideman Jonah Jones who just can’t be praised enough. For more information please see: