One of the great entertainers, Cab Calloway was a household name by 1932, and never really declined in fame. A talented jazz singer and a superior scatter, Calloway's gyrations and showmanship on-stage at the Cotton Club sometimes overshadowed the quality of his always excellent bands. The younger brother of singer Blanche Calloway (who made... [+] Read More

One of the great entertainers, Cab Calloway was a household name by 1932, and never really declined in fame. A talented jazz singer and a superior scatter, Calloway's gyrations and showmanship on-stage at the Cotton Club sometimes overshadowed the quality of his always excellent bands. The younger brother of singer Blanche Calloway (who made some fine records before retiring in the mid-'30s), Cab grew up in Baltimore, attended law school briefly, and then quit to try to make it as a singer and a dancer. For a time, he headed the Alabamians, but the band was not strong enough to make it in New York. The Missourians, an excellent group that had previously recorded heated instrumentals but had fallen upon hard times, worked out much better. Calloway worked in the 1929 revue Hot Chocolates, started recording in 1930, and in 1931 hit it big with both "Minnie the Moocher" and his regular engagement at the Cotton Club. Calloway was soon (along with Bill Robinson, Ethel Waters, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington) the best-known black entertainer of the era. He appeared in quite a few movies (including 1943's Stormy Weather), and "Minnie the Moocher" was followed by such recordings as "Kicking the Gong Around," "Reefer Man," "Minnie the Moocher's Wedding Day," "You Gotta Hi-De-Ho," "The Hi-De-Ho Miracle Man," and even "Mister Paganini, Swing for Minnie." Among Calloway's sidemen through the years (who received among the highest salaries in the business) were Walter "Foots" Thomas, Bennie Payne, Doc Cheatham, Eddie Barefield, Shad Collins, Cozy Cole, Danny Barker, Milt Hinton, Mario Bauza, Chu Berry, Dizzy Gillespie, Jonah Jones, Tyree Glenn, Panama Francis, and Ike Quebec. His 1942 recording of "Blues in the Night" was a big hit.

With the end of the big band era, Calloway had to reluctantly break up his orchestra in 1948, although he continued to perform with his Cab Jivers. Since George Gershwin had originally modeled the character Sportin' Life in Porgy and Bess after Calloway, it was fitting that Cab got to play him in a 1950s version. Throughout the rest of his career, Calloway made special appearances for fans who never tired of hearing him sing "Minnie the Moocher." ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Slim & Sam were a novelty duo that formed in 1936, consisting of guitarist/singer Slim Gaillard and bassist Slam Stewart. The pair's first recording together, "Flat Foot Floogie," would also be their biggest hit as well, although other lesser hits followed through the early '40s (including "Tutti Frutti" and "Laughin' in Rhythm"). By 1945, new... [+] Read More

Slim & Sam were a novelty duo that formed in 1936, consisting of guitarist/singer Slim Gaillard and bassist Slam Stewart. The pair's first recording together, "Flat Foot Floogie," would also be their biggest hit as well, although other lesser hits followed through the early '40s (including "Tutti Frutti" and "Laughin' in Rhythm"). By 1945, new bassist Bam Brown had replaced Stewart in the group (Brown would be present for such further hit novelties as "Cement Mixer" and "Poppity Pop"), while the same year saw a show in which Gaillard teamed up with both Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, culminating in the release of Slim's Jam. Throughout the rest of the decade, Gaillard teamed up with such other sidemen as Zutty Singleton and Dodo Marmarosa but was unable to sustain his earlier chart success. Gaillard abandoned his music career completely in the '60s (running a San Diego motel), but by the '70s, Gaillard returned to the concert stage for sporadic appearances. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Harry "the Hipster" Gibson, a talented if eccentric pianist/vocalist, had his brief moment of fame before fading into obscurity. He started out playing on 52nd Street as a stride pianist and in 1944 even performed "In a Mist" at an Eddie Condon Town Hall concert. But it was his crazy compositions (including "Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs.... [+] Read More

Harry "the Hipster" Gibson, a talented if eccentric pianist/vocalist, had his brief moment of fame before fading into obscurity. He started out playing on 52nd Street as a stride pianist and in 1944 even performed "In a Mist" at an Eddie Condon Town Hall concert. But it was his crazy compositions (including "Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine," "Handsome Harry the Hipster," and "Stop That Dancin' Up There") and frantic singing style (predating rock & roll by a decade) that gave him an underground reputation. Gibson's definitive recordings were made for Musicraft in 1944 and 1947, and his unusual showmanship was captured on a few soundies during the period. However, Gibson's excessive drug use resulted in his quick decline after 1947. He did record a somewhat demented Christmas album in 1974 and some new songs for Progressive in 1986, but largely wasted his great potential. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Not only was Fats Waller one of the greatest pianists jazz has ever known, he was also one of its most exuberantly funny entertainers -- and as so often happens, one facet tends to obscure the other. His extraordinarily light and flexible touch belied his ample physical girth; he could swing as hard as any pianist alive or dead in his classic... [+] Read More

Not only was Fats Waller one of the greatest pianists jazz has ever known, he was also one of its most exuberantly funny entertainers -- and as so often happens, one facet tends to obscure the other. His extraordinarily light and flexible touch belied his ample physical girth; he could swing as hard as any pianist alive or dead in his classic James P. Johnson-derived stride manner, with a powerful left hand delivering the octaves and tenths in a tireless, rapid, seamless stream. Waller also pioneered the use of the pipe organ and Hammond organ in jazz -- he called the pipe organ the "God box" -- adapting his irresistible sense of swing to the pedals and a staccato right hand while making imaginative changes of the registration. As a composer and improviser, his melodic invention rarely flagged, and he contributed fistfuls of joyous yet paradoxically winsome songs like "Honeysuckle Rose," "Ain't Misbehavin,'" "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now," "Blue Turning Grey Over You" and the extraordinary "Jitterbug Waltz" to the jazz repertoire.

During his lifetime and afterwards, though, Fats Waller was best known to the world for his outsized comic personality and sly vocals, where he would send up trashy tunes that Victor Records made him record with his nifty combo, Fats Waller & His Rhythm. Yet on virtually any of his records, whether the song is an evergreen standard or the most trite bit of doggerel that a Tin Pan Alley hack could serve up, you will hear a winning combination of good knockabout humor, foot-tapping rhythm and fantastic piano playing. Today, almost all of Fats Waller's studio recordings can be found on RCA's on-again-off-again series The Complete Fats Waller, which commenced on LPs in 1975 and was still in progress during the 1990s.

Thomas "Fats" Waller came from a Harlem household where his father was a Baptist lay preacher and his mother played piano and organ. Waller took up the piano at age six, playing in a school orchestra led by Edgar Sampson (of Chick Webb fame). After his mother died when he was 14, Waller moved into the home of pianist Russell Brooks, where he met and studied with James P. Johnson. Later, Waller also received classical lessons from Carl Bohm and the famous pianist Leopold Godowsky. After making his first record at age 18 for Okeh in 1922, "Birmingham Blues"/"'Muscle Shoals Blues,"" he backed various blues singers and worked as house pianist and organist at rent parties and in movie theaters and clubs. He began to attract attention as a composer during the early- and mid-'20s, forming a most fruitful alliance with lyricist Andy Razaf that resulted in three Broadway shows in the late '20s, Keep Shufflin', Load of Coal, and Hot Chocolates.

Waller started making records for Victor in 1926; his most significant early records for that label were a series of brilliant 1929 solo piano sides of his own compositions like "Handful of Keys" and "Smashing Thirds." After finally signing an exclusive Victor contract in 1934, he began the long-running, prolific series of records with His Rhythm, which won him great fame and produced several hits, including "Your Feet's Too Big," "The Joint Is Jumpin'" and "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter." He began to appear in films like Hooray for Love and King of Burlesque in 1935 while continuing regular appearances on radio that dated back to 1923. He toured Europe in 1938, made organ recordings in London for HMV, and appeared on one of the first television broadcasts. He returned to London the following spring to record his most extensive composition, "London Suite" for piano and percussion, and embark on an extensive continental tour (which, alas, was canceled by fears of impending war with Germany). Well aware of the popularity of big bands in the '30s, Waller tried to form his own, but they were short-lived.

Into the 1940s, Waller's touring schedule of the U.S. escalated, he contributed music to another musical, Early to Bed, the film appearances kept coming (including a memorable stretch of Stormy Weather where he led an all-star band that included Benny Carter, Slam Stewart and Zutty Singleton), the recordings continued to flow, and he continued to eat and drink in extremely heavy quantities. Years of draining alimony squabbles, plus overindulgence and, no doubt, frustration over not being taken more seriously as an artist, began to wear the pianist down. Finally, after becoming ill during a gig at the Zanzibar Room in Hollywood in December, 1943, Waller boarded the Santa Fe Chief train for the long trip back to New York. He never made it, dying of pneumonia aboard the train during a stop at Union Station in Kansas City.

While every clown longs to play Hamlet as per the cliche -- and Waller did have so-called serious musical pretensions, longing to follow in George Gershwin's footsteps and compose concert music -- it probably was not in the cards anyway due to the racial barriers of the first half of the 20th century. Besides, given the fact that Waller influenced a long line of pianists of and after his time, including Count Basie (who studied with Fats), Teddy Wilson, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck and countless others, his impact has been truly profound. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide [-] Hide

One of the most eccentric vocalists ever to hit the jazz scene, Slim Gaillard became a legendary cult figure thanks to his own privately invented jive dialect "vout," a variation on hipster slang composed of imaginary nonsense words ("oreenie" and "oroonie" being two other examples). Gaillard's comic performances, laid-back cool, and supremely... [+] Read More

One of the most eccentric vocalists ever to hit the jazz scene, Slim Gaillard became a legendary cult figure thanks to his own privately invented jive dialect "vout," a variation on hipster slang composed of imaginary nonsense words ("oreenie" and "oroonie" being two other examples). Gaillard's comic performances, laid-back cool, and supremely silly songs made him a popular entertainer from the late '30s to the early '50s, especially on the West Coast, and several of his compositions became genuine hits, including "Flat Foot Floogie" and "Cement Mixer." Versatility was not Gaillard's stock-in-trade, but he was highly effective at what he did, and his musical ability as a singer, Charlie Christian-style guitarist, and boogie-woogie pianist was perhaps a bit overlooked in comparison to the novelty value of his music.

Slim was born Bulee Gaillard, most likely on January 4, 1916 in Detroit, MI; some sources list his birth date as January 1, and Gaillard sometimes claimed to have been born in Santa Clara, Cuba, instead of Detroit. His father worked as a steward on a cruise liner, and sometimes brought young Slim along, once accidentally leaving him behind on the island of Crete. Gaillard was mostly raised in Detroit, though, where he tried his hand at professional boxing, worked as a mortician, and ran bootleg rum for the Purple Gang during the '30s. He also developed an act in which he played guitar and tap danced simultaneously, and eventually moved to New York to work the vaudeville circuit. In 1936, he teamed up with bassist Slam Stewart as Slim & Slam, and two years later they scored a substantial hit with "Flat Foot Floogie," which was quickly covered by the likes of Benny Goodman and Fats Waller in the wake of the original recording's success. Gaillard and Stewart kept cutting songs in a similar vein, including "Tutti Frutti" and "Laughin' in Rhythm," and eventually took their act to Hollywood, where they appeared in the 1941 film Hellzapoppin. Their partnership continued on through 1942, when World War II interrupted; both served in the military, Gaillard in the Air Force.

Upon exiting the service in 1944, Gaillard settled in Los Angeles and took up residency at Billy Berg's Hollywood Boulevard club, a hot spot for stars of the era. Now in tandem with bassist Bam Brown, Gaillard became a top draw and a hip name to drop; his 1945 hit "Cement Mixer" returned him to national prominence, and he recorded frequently that year, often with a quartet featuring Brown, pianist Dodo Marmarosa, and drummer Zutty Singleton. He also cut a session with bop greats Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in late 1945, the most notable result of which was "Slim's Jam." The latter half of the '40s saw Gaillard's popularity at its peak; he appeared in several films and recorded for Verve up through 1951. He had further hits with 1948's "Down by the Station," which became a popular children's nursery rhyme, and 1951's "Yep Roc Heresay," a recitation of the menu from a Middle Eastern restaurant that one radio station banned for its "suggestiveness." He performed in New York frequently from 1951-1953, and also participated in Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic in 1953; a few years later, he was name-checked in Jack Kerouac's On the Road.

By the mid-'50s, Gaillard's popularity was on the wane. He spent much of the latter part of the decade on the road with Stan Kenton, and recorded for Dot in 1958. He took a hiatus from music in the '60s; he managed a motel in San Diego for a time, and bought an orchard near Tacoma, WA. He also played clubs and spent time in Los Angeles, where he drifted into acting toward the end of the decade, appearing on TV shows like Marcus Welby, M.D., Charlie's Angels, Mission Impossible, Medical Center, and Along Came Bronson. He reunited with Slam Stewart at the 1970 Monterey Jazz Festival, and in 1979 he appeared in the miniseries Roots: The Next Generation. In 1982, Dizzy Gillespie talked Gaillard into returning to music. He traveled to the U.K. and made his first recordings since 1958 for Hep, which issued them as the album Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere; he also hit the festival circuit and toured Europe extensively, making London his new home base in 1983. He appeared in the cult film Absolute Beginners in 1986, and was the subject of a multipart BBC special called The World of Slim Gaillard in 1989. Gaillard passed away on February 26, 1991, after a bout with cancer. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Harry "The Hipster" Gibson, a talented boogie-woogie and stride pianist, had by 1944 become an infamous personality whose crazy jive talk and humorous vocals often championed a decadent lifestyle. For a few years he had a strong cult following before fading out in the late '40s. Gibson's best recordings were the dozen sides he cut for Musicraft... [+] Read More

Harry "The Hipster" Gibson, a talented boogie-woogie and stride pianist, had by 1944 become an infamous personality whose crazy jive talk and humorous vocals often championed a decadent lifestyle. For a few years he had a strong cult following before fading out in the late '40s. Gibson's best recordings were the dozen sides he cut for Musicraft during 1944 and 1947, and all are included on this definitive release. Among his greatest "hits" were "Handsome Harry the Hipster," "Get Your Juices at the Deuces," "4F Ferdinand, the Frantic Freak," "Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine," "I Stay Brown All Year Round," and the classic "Stop That Dancin' up There." Highly recommended. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Slim Gaillard had a strong cult following in the mid-1940s for his brand of swing, jive and eccentric comedy, which involved his own language. This set from Hep mostly consists of a live performance at Billy Berg's in June 1946 with Slim on piano and guitar, bassist Bam Brown (who plays a comic foil for Gaillard) and drummer Leo Watson; in... [+] Read More

Slim Gaillard had a strong cult following in the mid-1940s for his brand of swing, jive and eccentric comedy, which involved his own language. This set from Hep mostly consists of a live performance at Billy Berg's in June 1946 with Slim on piano and guitar, bassist Bam Brown (who plays a comic foil for Gaillard) and drummer Leo Watson; in addition, there are the soundtracks from two soundies filmed around that era with Scat Man Carruthers on drums. This valuable set gives one a strong example of what it was like to see Slim Gaillard perform live at his prime. Highlights include "Yep Roc Heresy," "Poppity Pop" and "Cement Mixer," but just hearing Gaillard ad-lib makes it all worthwhile. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide [-] Hide

An excellent one-disc overview of Calloway's 1940s Okeh, Columbia, and Vocalion recordings. Beyond the showmanship and humor, Calloway had an amazingly swinging big band that was home to emerging jazz stars like Jonah Jones, Chu Berry, Cozy Cole, and (briefly) Dizzy Gillespie. Calloway's riotous vocals and scatting are always a delight, and were... [+] Read More

An excellent one-disc overview of Calloway's 1940s Okeh, Columbia, and Vocalion recordings. Beyond the showmanship and humor, Calloway had an amazingly swinging big band that was home to emerging jazz stars like Jonah Jones, Chu Berry, Cozy Cole, and (briefly) Dizzy Gillespie. Calloway's riotous vocals and scatting are always a delight, and were an important precursor to bebop. The poet laureate of hip. ~ Joel Roberts, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Some of pianist-vocalist-composer Fats Waller's "greatest hits" are on this introductory sampler but the packaging could certainly be better. The caricature on the cover shows Waller with a beard, the 14 selections are randomly programmed, some of the recording dates are inaccurate (this version of "Honeysuckle Rose" is from 1937 rather than... [+] Read More

Some of pianist-vocalist-composer Fats Waller's "greatest hits" are on this introductory sampler but the packaging could certainly be better. The caricature on the cover shows Waller with a beard, the 14 selections are randomly programmed, some of the recording dates are inaccurate (this version of "Honeysuckle Rose" is from 1937 rather than 1941) and there is no personnel listing, an inexcusable omission in every CD in this well-intentioned but erratic series. There are some classic performances on Waller's CD including "Handful of Keys," the 1937 all-star rendition of "Honeysuckle Rose" (with uncredited appearances by Tommy Dorsey and Bunny Berigan!), "The Joint Is Jumpin'," and "Your Feet's Too Big," making this one of the better entries in this program. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Singer/guitarist Slim Gaillard and bassist Slam Stewart made for a frequently hilarious and outrageous team. Gaillard's jive talk and the basic but memorable originals (best-known of which is "The Flat Foot Floogie") made Slim & Slam a popular group in the late '30s. All of their joint recordings were reissued in a perfectly done box set for... [+] Read More

Singer/guitarist Slim Gaillard and bassist Slam Stewart made for a frequently hilarious and outrageous team. Gaillard's jive talk and the basic but memorable originals (best-known of which is "The Flat Foot Floogie") made Slim & Slam a popular group in the late '30s. All of their joint recordings were reissued in a perfectly done box set for Affinity a few years ago, so this single disc pales in comparison. and since eight of the 20 numbers that are included here are alternate takes (including "Floogie"), this is not quite a definitive introductory or greatest-hits set either, although beginners should be delighted by the music. The performances (which sometimes includes such guests as trumpeter Al Killian, clarinetist Garvin Bushell, drummers Kenny Clarke and Chico Hamilton and tenor great Ben Webster) are quite fun, but a bit more planning should have gone into the programming. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide [-] Hide