1930-31

Cab Calloway | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 13, 1994)
• Label: Jazz Chronological Classics
• ASIN: B000001NIG
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,011,641 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Gotta Darn Good Reason Now (For Bein' Good)

2. St. Louis Blues

3. Sweet Jenny Lee

4. Happy Feet

5. Yaller

6. The Viper's Drag

7. Is That Religion?

8. Some Of These Days

9. Nobody's Sweetheart

10. St. James Infirmary

11. Dixie Vagabond

12. So Sweet

13. Minnie The Moocher

14. Doin' The Rhumba

15. Mood Indigo

16. Farewell Blues

17. I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby

18. Creole Love Song

19. The Levee Low-Down

20. Blues In My Heart

See all 24 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the first of an excellent comprehensive collection., June 26, 1998

By 

Brenna Lorenz ([e-mail]) (Guam) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 1930-31 (Audio CD)

This first CD in the Chronogical (sic?) Classics collection is one of our favorites. Cab's voice at this early age is high and sweet, and his style wilder and less polished than his later style. His recording of St. Louis Blues is awesome! The Viper's Drag (a Fats Waller piece), St. James Infirmary, and The Nightmare are haunting and beautiful. This CD also includes the earliest recorded version of Minnie the Moocher. It also has Cab performing I'm Crazy About My Baby; it's fun to compare this to Fats Waller's version. The piece Six or Seven Times is an answer to two earlier songs by other artists: Four or Five Times and Once or Twice. There is little cheese and plenty of good stuff on this CD!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic tunes from a great American band leader, August 19, 2001

By 

Michael J. Mazza - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 1930-31 (Audio CD)

"Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, 1930-1931" brings together 24 memorable tracks from this great figure in United States music. The songs on this CD are a diverse group. They include "Yaller," a mournful-sounding reflection on skin color and racial identity ("I ain't even black, I ain't even white, / I ain't like the day and I ain't like the night"); the playfully satiric "Is That Religion?", which parodies the "call and response" tradition of African-American churches; the mellow "Dixie Vagabond"; the gentle "Creole Love Song"; and the fun, energetic "Levee Low-Down."

And of course, this CD features "Minnie the Moocher" ("She was a red-hot hoochie-coocher"), which is probably the quintessential Cab Calloway song. This CD is important for serious students of American music, but it is also, all these decades later, still an enjoyable listening experience.