American singer, composer, bandleader, conductor, and dancer Cabell Calloway III was born on December 25, 1907, and he passed away on November 18, 1994, at the age of 86 years old.
He was connected to the Harlem Cotton Club, where he frequently performed and rose to fame as a vocalist during the swing era. Over the course of his 65-year career, he received praise for his specialty of fusing jazz and vaudeville.
From the early 1930s through the late 1940s, Calloway, a master of vivacious scat singing, was the leader of one of the most well-known dance orchestras in the United States.
Dizzy Gillespie, Jonah Jones, and Adolphus “Doc” Cheatham on trumpets, Ben Webster and Leon “Chu” Berry on saxophones, Danny Barker on guitar, Milt Hinton on bass, and Cozy Cole on drums made up his band.
Cab Calloway parents: Cabell Calloway II, Martha Eulalia Reed
His father, Cabell Calloway Sr., earned a degree in law and real estate from Lincoln University of Pennsylvania in 1898.
Martha Eulalia Reed, Calloway’s mother, was a church organist, a teacher, and a graduate of Morgan State College.
