Hey, you hepcats!
Are you ready to put on your zoot suit and ground grippers and
head to the frolic pad to see the Prince of Hi-de-Ho?
If you’re not hep to the jive, here’s the translation – C.
Calloway Brooks, grandson of legendary performer and bandleader Cab
Calloway, is bringing his band to Bradford. And he promises to put
some “Hi-de-Ho” in your soul.
Brooks and his band will appear at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the
Bromeley Family Theater on the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford
campus as part of the current Bradford Creative and Performing Arts
season.
“Expect to see a zoot suit and to sing a little yourself,”
Brooks said. “My grandfather always said his greatest satisfaction
was to delight people. I’m proud to say that our legacy continues
to do just that.”
That Calloway legacy is all about swing, the sound coming out of
the Cotton Club in Harlem in the 1930s and 40s where Calloway
performed with his band for a decade. The Calloway difference,
Brooks explains, can be found in the performance.
“Granddad used to say he was a performing artist, not a
recording artist. A Calloway performance always surfs with the
energy of a crowd.”
It’s the audience participation that keeps the jive alive,
Brooks says. His grandfather’s signature song, “Minnie the
Moocher,” is the perfect example of the Calloway technique that
showcased the now-famous catch phrase “Hi-de-Ho,” which the
audience would sing as a response.
At the upcoming concert, audience can expect Brooks, decked out
in an over-draped zoot suit, to pick up his grandfather’s baton and
lead the 13-piece orchestra in a string of swing songs – some
originals and some using the authentic arrangements from the 1930s
and 40s. The play list may well include such hits, besides “Minnie
the Moocher,” as “Jumpin’ Jive,” “Stormy Weather” and “It Ain’t
Necessarily so”
“We’ve got trumpets, bass, saxophones, piano, trombones, drums.
Plus, I play guitar as well as sing and conduct the orchestra.”
Brooks’ resume as a musician is impressive on its own. He began
playing guitar at the age of 7 and won his first musical award at
age 11. He is also a graduate of the New England Conservatory of
Music and later toured with his grandfather. He and his band have
performed at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center, among many
others. Unfortunately, his grandfather, who died in 1994, did not
live to see his grandson assume the family’s musical mantle, but
Brooks has a feeling about that.
“I somehow know that Granddad is smiling down on us and maybe
scatting along to some of his favorite tunes.”
Scatting, a type of jazz singing, is just one of the things
Calloway taught his grandson.
“I also learned how to relate to a crowd, how to put my moves
together and how to keep track of the tempos,” Brooks said. “He
also taught me how important it is to work successfully with many
different people and personalities.”
Brooks met more than a few people through his grandfather. “It
was my duty to answer the telephone when I went to his house. I’d
pick up the phone, and it would be a who’s who of all the jazz and
pop musicians.”
At the age of 9, he met legendary trumpeter Louis Armstrong
backstage at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. “My granddad
and Louis were just like brothers,” he said.
Another world-famous trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie, started out in
his grandfather’s band.
In fact, because the Calloway band was such a fertile breeding
ground for all types of artists and musical influences, Calloway’s
own zoot suits are displayed in a glass case at the entrance to the
Hip-Hop Museum in New York.
Calloway also appeared in a Janet Jackson video and made an
unforgettable appearance in the “Blues Brothers” movie with John
Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.
Brooks sees swing as an enduring part of American culture. “My
granddad’s music brought the cultures together on a somewhat
co-equal basis,” he said. “It was shared by people of all different
cultures. Glenn Miller would come up to the Cotton Club in Harlem
to see him, and my grandfather’s band played at Miller’s funeral.
The music captured the imagination of the potential of human
brotherhood.”
To illustrate how universal a language swing is, Brooks said
when he was in Japan recently to perform at the opening of a jazz
club, a Japanese man came up to him, smiled and showed him his
business card. On the card was written, “Jive.”
Brooks said his grandfather worried his music might die out, but
he won’t let that happen. “It’s my honor and duty to help the
public appreciate a great American treasure. Besides, the music’s
in my blood.”
As for heating up the Bradford temperatures, Brooks says that
depends on how well the audience shouts back those Hi-de-Ho’s.
“We’re basically a good-time band, so expect to walk away
smiling.”
Those interested in tickets for the concert, also sponsored by
Seneca Eye Surgeons and Atlantic Broadband, should contact BCPAC or
visit the BCPAC Web site at www.bcpac.
