He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer. Calloway's band featured performers including trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham , saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry , New Orleans guitar ace Danny Barker , and bassist Milt Hinton . He played co-house at the Cotton Club with Duke EllingtonAs a result of the success of "Minnie the Moocher," he became identified with its chorus, gaining the nickname "The Hi De Ho Man" It still makes me beam with [...]

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy : Minnie the Moocher [ purchase ] Minnie the Moocher is the timeless tale of a good girl gone bad, prohibition style. The song was written by Cab Calloway, who first recorded it in 1932. Calloway was a great showman. His dance moves look impossible even now, and may have inspired James Brown. Minnie the Moocher has the famous hi-de-hi-de-hi call and response between Calloway and his band. He used to get his audiences to sing the responses, and then Calloway would sing more and more complicated [...]

I know I've described my weird and obsessive love of jazz-era marijuana songs before, but this is one of my favorites. The song itself, Reefer Man has been around forever, and I've heard a really great version from the 20s, but I think my favorite is the flamboyant Cab Calloway 's. His version features a great barroom piano and the appropriate excitement and weirdness of Calloway's voice, movements and delivery make this an incredibly dynamic, total non-downer of a marijuana song. I've also included a slower, more, erm, lackadaisical version by Don Redman And His Orchestra [...]

So, this is our final "official" post before we enter the blissful sleep of the real world. Thanks for reading. But does anyone mourn the passing of a music blog? I mean, c'mon now: this ain't no Rolling Stone . Thank God. But if one were to mourn a music blog, there'd only be one way to do it: the immemorial NOLA dirge, "St. James Infirmary." It's a song recorded by hundreds. Of unclear origins—possibly forked from the old English folk song "The Unfortunate Rake," possibly not. "Written" in the early [...]

Actors putting out albums - it's an idea that doesn't always bode well. Actually, almost never. Unexpectedly, this trend of thespian trainwrecks doesn't include the (apparently) multitalented actor, musician, and bestselling author, Hugh Laurie. His debut album, Let Them Talk (Warner Bros), proves that Laurie has a soulful set of pipes that handle complex melodies with an unexpected natural ease. Dim the lights and sit back, as Let Them Talk is an evocative fifteen-track tribute to New Orleans blues. If you're familiar with Hugh Laurie's character House on the eponymous series, it's [...]
HE'S HIGH - FROM THE WEED! - It's the Sabbath, less tech action more dusty crates please. This weekend you get Cab Calloway and he has got styles for miiiiiiiles. Check out his wiggle when he's conducting the Harlemaniacs. Tough moves right there. Cab Calloway - Reefer Man High Quality Download audio file (Cab-Calloway-Reefer-Man-High- Quality-1.mp3)

SCAT BEFORE SMUT - If you google for scat you might find a bit of history on one of it's pioneers - Cab Calloway. More likely you will find photos of Japanese girls shafting themselves with dildos of frozen shit. Your call. Download audio file (cab-calloway-minnie-the-mooch er.mp3) cab calloway - minnie the moocher Bookmark It [...]
African-American performances of Jewish themed music. African American - Ethnicity - African - Johnny Mathis - Billie Holiday
"Interplay of Jewish Culture and Black Music Chronicled on 'Black Sabbath: The Secret Musical History of Black-Jewish Relations'." BlackSabbath - Religion and Spirituality - Judaism - Secular Jewish culture - Arts
Not that Black Sabbath! BlackSabbath - Religion and Spirituality - Arts - Music - Ozzy Osbourne
Ladies and Gentlemen. Meine Damen und Herren. Boys and Girls (in America ), Welcome to "What's Your Muse?, a new feature on Mixtape Muse. The concept is simple: We ask a band/artist to choose a song that means a lot to them/has come to define them. They reply with a video of themselves describing why they chose the song. Enjoy! This week, we bring you the premier of What's Your Muse , featuring up and coming artist Jamie Kent. (Kent's graced MM's pages before, [...]

I promised a while back to follow up the first two New York mixes with one in black & white. In the interim, the two Christmas in Black & White mixes ( here and here ) were quite popular, so I hope that this collection of songs about or set in New York, spanning 30 years, will find an audience. And I hope that some of these songs will inspire the listener to seek out more music by some of the artists who are largely forgotten now. [...]

The Blues Brothers es (pero más bien fue) una banda formada en 1978 por dos grandes personajes de Saturday Night Live : Don Aykroyd y John Belushi. La banda nació de un sketch que hicieron para el programa, en donde los hermanos Jake (Belushi) y Elwood (Aykroyd) Blues, tocaban soul y r&b. El sketch gustó tanto, que la banda tomó dimensiones que sobrepasaron la televisión. Sacaron un álbum, Briefcase Full Of Blues el mismo año y en 1980, John Landis dirigió The Blues Brothers [...]
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! "Everybody Eats When They Come To My House" by Cab Calloway, 1947 From the compilation Are You Hep To The Jive? "Everybody Eats When They Come To My House" lyrics "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong, 1967 From the compilation All-Time Greatest Hits "What A Wonderful World" lyrics
A day of food, friends, thanks, and for some, sports, Thanksgiving is that all-American holiday we can't help but enjoy with all the decadence and grace imaginable. Whether or not you're planning on attending a giant gathering or staying home alone, there's always music to keep you company for the festivities, so naturally, I've plucked a few thematic tracks for the occasion. Click below the cut for the playlist. 1. Don Armando's 2nd Ave. Rhumba Band - "I'm An Indian Too" [...]

Photography by gabriele chiapparini Ah, the quarterlife crisis. Don't know much about it on a "well-read" & "technical level", but on a personal level, I think I've seen it happen. Somewhere around the 20+ year old mark, peaking as you start approaching 25, potentially hitting critical mass if nothing has been "activated" by 30, it's during that 10 year span where if things aren't going the way you dreamed/hoped/thought/prepared for/wanted/etc, a sense of panic and/or depression and/or dread and/or boredom can start to settle in... I was fortunate enough to skip it [...]

b3sci MIXTAPES: H A L L O W EE N .. AWWW YEAH ! ! ! is the monster mash played out? yeah! do we give a fuck? no! throw that trick or treat in the air! and wave it round like ya just don't care! 01. Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me 02. Run DMC - Ghostbusters 03. Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs - Little Red Riding Hood 04. Green Go - Brains for [...]

Today we're going to hear two oldschool jazzy bandleaders, and their versions of Stag. Duke Ellington ( official wiki AMG )recorded his take in 1927, and it's an uptempo, bluesy little swing instrumental. That's right, an instrumental. I don't post a lot of instrumental takes on Stag (in fact, this is the first one), but Ellington's a big damn name. At the time, he was headlining The Cotton Club . Four years later, Ellington's replacement at The Cotton Club , Cab Calloway ( official wiki AMG [...]

A few years ago, I was talking about music with a friend. The subject in question was Monster Magnet's amazing video for "Spacelord". I said something like: "It's like stoner rock impersonating gangsta rap..." and was swiftly interrupted. "Stoner rock?" he asked. "What the hell is 'stoner rock'?" "I guess it's bands that smoke a lot of weed," I said. "Or maybe it's music that's supposed to sound good when you're high?" I had probably never heard of Kyuss at that point. "And it's a whole genre? That's stupid." "I think most of them [...]