That's the famous Cab Calloway's grandson "CB" Calloway Brooks. I watched him and the Cab Jivers play a set up in Chestnut Hill last night and afterwards, I had the pleasure of driving him to the train station. He's got a wonderful voice and has a lot of the charisma his granddad had.
I don't recall ever seeing Cab with an instrument in his hands, just that baton, but CB strums away at the guitar very well.
He wasn't rocking his granddad's zoot suit, but he was rocking an old school looong watch chain. He pulled out the time piece during an encore of "Minnie the Moocher" while holding a loooong note playing with his drummer...
He was all over the stage working the room. And you can see the trademark "C" on the stands of the brass section.
Along with a sax, trumpet, trombone, stand up bass, drum set and baby grand piano, CB sang in a way I haven't heard in a long time. I missed the '20s and '30s by a good long time, but the influence of people like Cab shows up every day and in much of the music I grew up listening to. I'm in his debt and it was a pleasure to listen to his grandson sing the way he did last night.
Above is a clip of Cab performing "Minnie the Moocher". And Cab did have some Philly ties - according to his Wiki entry, he attended (but didn't graduate from) Lincoln University.
On the ride to 30th St from Chestnut Hill, CB told me about when his granddad used to tour with Duke Ellington. He told me of how they'd have to knock on the doors of people's houses in the black neighborhoods of the towns they played in to be put up for the night until they decided to lease Pullman rail cars and hitch them to freighters to get from city to city. Cab used to bring his Packard in tow in one car and in the other four or so cars they had their own rehearsal space, dining car and sleeper car. Incredible. I asked him if he was old enough to ever tour with Cab and he said that he got the chance to play 30 or so gigs with him and he treasured the opportunities he had. CB was on his way to Baltimore, by train, for a meeting with some people which could lead to some really cool opportunities, but I'm not going to spill the beans like that. Hopefully there will be some good news down the pipe.
It was wonderful to hear the sounds of the past live and then to listen to just a slice of the back story of how it happened from a pretty reliable source. For more info on the Cab Calloway Orchestra, head here. For a clip of CB in full Cab Calloway getup with the orchestra, head here and download a clip. Cab Calloway would've been 100 this December.
Some more shots in this flickr set.
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