Cab Calloway is definitely a singer and dancer to remember. Not only was Cab’s music innovative, but he broke racial barriers and was very successful financially during the Great Depression. Cab forever changed jazz music with his own unique style known as “scatting.” Without Cab Calloway, also known as “The Hi-De-Ho Man”, hip-hop and modern jazz may have never existed.
Cab Calloway was born on December 25, 1907 in Rochester, New York at his family’s house on Cypress Street. People always tried to make something out of the fact that Cab was born on Christmas. It never meant very much to him that he was born on Christmas, except that as a child he only got presents once a year and other kids got them twice (Rollins 8).
Cab’s father was a lawyer
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That was his first night club gig in Chicago (Rollins 57). Cab and the band had shows every night, and he made a good salary (Rollins 58). After a few months, Cab got noticed by the owner of the Sunset Café, another music venue in Chicago, and convinced Cab to play there. At the Sunset Café, Cab’s career really began to take off (Rollins 59). For one thing, he made more money and within a year he was on his way. By the spring of 1929, Cab was married to Wenonah Conacher, had enough money and was leading his own band The Alabamians, who played at the Sunset (Rollins …show more content…
He was the first jazz artist to sell over one million copies of a single record – “Minnie the Moocher” – and he went on to record many albums. Cab made an average of $50,000 a year, even during the middle of the Great Depression when so many people were out of work and poor. He invented a new form of jazz singing, “scatting,” and ended up doing what he had always dreamed of: being an entertainer and seeing the smiles on peoples faces everyday. Perhaps more importantly, he changed the music industry by proving black entertainers could perform before white audiences. In these ways and others, modern black hip-hop and jazz artists owe a debt of gratitude to Cab Calloway. Without his earlier successes, they may not have had the same opportunities as they now
Joseph Louis Barrow was born May 13, 1914. Being the son of a sharecropper, Joseph was brought up in a cotton-field near Lafayette, Alabama. Growing up as the eighth child in a small household, inevitably financial struggle is bound to happen. An example of this was that the kids had to sleep three to a bed. Joseph received little schooling and after his mom, Lillie Barrow, remarried (learning that her husband, Munroe Barrow, and Joseph’s father died in the Searcy state hospital for the Colored Insane) the family moved to Detroit, Michigan. Since moving to Detroit was the first major change in Joseph’s life, Joseph was unprepared for school. He was often mistaken for being dumb because of his social awkwardness as in being shy and quiet. In order to “change” this, his mother paid for violin lessons.
Eventually in 1937, Dizzy Gillespie decided to head out to New York to carry out his dream of becoming a famous jazz player. During his time at New York he talked with many different bands and earned a job with Teddy Hill’s band. Hill was very impressed with Gillespie’s unique playing style. The group went on a tour from Great Britain to France shortly after Gillespie had joined the band. After getting back from the tour G...
The book “A Long Way From Chicago” is an adventurous and funny story. The story takes place at Joey Dowdel’s Grandmothers farm house in the country. Joey and his sister Mary Alice were sent to their Grandma’s house during the summer because their parents had to go to Canada for their work. At first, Joey felt uncomfortable with his Grandmother because he had never met her before but eventually he got to know her and they became close friends.
Further, throughout the book, Sadie and Bessie continuously reminds the reader of the strong influence family life had on their entire lives. Their father and mother were college educated and their father was the first black Episcopal priest and vice principal at St. Augustine Co...
Where they grew up, kids as young as 8 years old were recruited into illegal operations; Wes and Tony included. Mary tried everything she could, but had lost her sons to the wonder and curiosity that money brings. The important place a mother should hold in her son’s life vanished and she was left to take care of their mistakes. Later in their lives, both boys were caught in a heist that set them up for an entire lifetime in jail. Their arrest sent “cheering responses” from everyone in their community. The boys were not only involved with a robbery, but a murder as well. The word spread quickly about their sentences and a “collective sigh of relief seeped through Baltimore. At home, Mary wept” (Moore 155). Many families go through traumatic experiences comparable to Mary’s situation. The choices her sons made left her alone, parallel to the isolation the boys were experiencing as
To determine what factors Brown had to overcome to become a success, we must look at what was against him. He was a black man in a white dominant society. The only factor that could have made Brown being black any worse was if he grew up in the South. He shows us this through his parents they moved from the South to Harlem to escape its prejudices. Like many black families Brown’s parents wanted to be the first Northern urban generation of Negro’s. He showed the kind of Southern black mentality his parents had with the jobs they took and the way they reacted to his quitting of what they called good paying jobs....
The music industry during the 1940s was filled with many talented artists who impacted the music industry and the history of rock n’ roll forever. But one of the very well known and talented artists was Buddy Holly. Buddy Holly was the first to pioneer new music genres and progressive music. Charles Hardin Holley (1936-1959) was an American musician and artist whose creative career began in 1956. The family name is correctly spelled “Holley” but his first recording contract from Decca Records in 1956 spelled his last name “Holly” and he kept it that way for the rest of his career (Griggs 1). Holly took a very influential position in the music industry and built an audience for his Rock and Roll music very quickly due to his unique voice and advanced knowledge of music. Buddy Holly is a prime example of a musical pioneer who blended resources from various music genres including a variety of popular genres such as rhythm and blues (RNB), oriental, and African (Schinder and Schwartz 85).
When it comes to jazz music, there is one name that everyone knows, whether they’ve never listened to jazz before or if they’ve listened to it their whole lives. That name is Louis Armstrong. Armstrong was one of the pioneers of jazz music, from his humble beginnings in one of New Orleans roughest districts, “the Battlefield”, to playing concerts for sold out crowds in Chicago and New York City, Louis left a massive impact on the way America listened to music for a long time. One of his premier tracks, “West End Blues”, left an impact on jazz music, which other musicians would try to emulate for years.
By the end of World War I, Black Americans were facing their lowest point in history since slavery. Most of the blacks migrated to the northern states such as New York and Chicago. It was in New York where the “Harlem Renaissance” was born. This movement with jazz was used to rid of the restraints held against African Americans. One of the main reasons that jazz was so popular was that it allowed the performer to create the rhythm. With This in Mind performers realized that there could no...
Throughout history, and even today, music has shaped America’s culture, society, and even politics. One of the most outstanding and enduring musical movement has been from African American artists, ranging from bebop to jazz to hip-hop to rap. During the 1920’s , jazz artists stepped into the limelight and began their impact on American and even world history. Louis Armstrong was one of the most influential leaders during the Harlem Renaissance and his jazz legacy and impact of American history is everlasting. A master of his craft, Armstrong and his music heavily influenced America’s white and black populations from the 1920’s and up until his death.
Before beginning to analyze both Motown and Stax Record’s influence on black consciousness it must first be understood why black consciousness itself can be seen as a step in the right direction in the fight against black struggle. Brian Ward does a great job of capturing the true success of soul music’s influence on black consciousness. Ward says, “[Black radio’s] real strength… was its ability to dramatize and celebrate shared aspects of the black experience… to promote a revived sense of black identity, pride, solidarity and common consciousness” (Ward 449). In his book, Ward also points out that despite this successful development of black consciousness, there was limited success both economically and structurally on behalf of the black music industry. This shows that even though ther...
Although the swing music that helped keep American spirits up during the Depression years still existed, there was an increasing amount of racial tension about bands formed by white men vs. bands formed by black men. White bands like Tommy Dorsey’s, which could play a broad spectrum of music, were hailed for their versatility. The black counterparts who sought to do the same were often indirectly accused of trying to get above themselves. This is important because many black musicians where losing work due to venues only hiring bands that were led by white men. Out work, or underpaid black musicians where often bought-out by white bandleaders who could offer them higher pay, and where looking for the best musicians they could find.
Duke Ellington is considered to be one of the greatest figures in the history of
Before the war started, a wealthy white man by the name of John Hammond worked to integrate black and white music.1 Since his childhood, he enjoyed the music of numerous black artists, and he wanted to share his love with the rest of America. He used much of his inherited fortune to make this possible. He went against the general opinion of society and his parents, who despised black people. Hammond refused to ignore black artists’ musical abilities because of their color, “I did not revolt against the system, I simply refused to be a part of it.”2 He used his money to organize the most eclectic group of musicians ever assembled, for an integrated audience of his time. Hammond’s efforts made an indelible impact on the music industry. The musicians Hammond introduced in...
...his high fly exciting time in history is known as one of the better times in African American History. Ragtime was cheerful and a upbeat type of music, nothing like no one ever heard before. Ragtime and the Blues are considered to be the maternities of Jazz. Blues and Ragtime were the fore competitors of Jazz in closely corresponding periods introducing the idea of syncopation. Syncopation is the dislodgment of a common recurrent intonation away from a robust beat onto a weak beat. Introducing the idea of syncopation and the bringing together of European and African American traditions. Ragtime was a balanced blend of all type of music, but jazz is what it truly inspired.