Photo: William P. Gottlieb / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Cab Calloway is one of those performers where even a grainy old recording is enough to make you understand why people lost their minds over him. Born on Christmas Day in 1907, he practically became the soul of the Cotton Club in Harlem during the swing era — a bandleader who didn't just lead, he commanded the entire room with that wild, elastic showmanship and the call-and-response "Hi-De-Ho" that turned his audience into willing accomplices. There was something vaudevillian and something deeply jazz about him all at once, and that combination kept him working for over 65 years. The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the National Medal of Arts feel like the bare minimum for a guy who helped define what American popular entertainment could be. He passed in 1994 at 86, and honestly, the party never quite recovered.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Cab Calloway
- Name (Japanese)
- キャブ・キャロウェイ
- Reading
- きゃぶ・きゃろうぇい
- Born
- December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Capricorn / Goat
- Origin
- Rochester, New York, United States
- Occupation
- singer / bandleader / conductor / actor / jazz musician
2. Background
- High school
- Frederick Douglass High School
- University
- Lincoln University
Awards & achievements
- 2008 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
- 1982 Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame
- 1993 National Medal of Arts
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Cab Calloway born?
December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994.
Where is Cab Calloway from?
Cab Calloway is from Rochester, New York, United States.
What does Cab Calloway do?
Cab Calloway works as singer, bandleader, conductor, actor, jazz musician.
Singer — see all → · Bandleader — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.