A collection of quotes and thoughts by Cab Calloway on audience, performer, life, segregation, blame, voice, effort, change, fun, time, love, and happiness.
Cab Calloway was a celebrated American dancer, bandleader, and jazz singer. He was a regular performer at the ‘Cotton Club’ in ‘New York City.’ In the 1930s and 1940s, he led the country’s most popular big bands and was renowned for his energetic scat singing. He continued to perform till he left for the heavenly abode. His band included guitarist ‘Danny Barker,’ trumpeters ‘Adolphus “Doc” Cheatham,’ and ‘Dizzy Gillespie,’ bassist ‘Milt Hinton,’ and saxophonists ‘Leon “Chu” Berry,’ and ‘Ben Webster.’ Go through the compilation of quotes and sayings by Cab Calloway which have been excerpted from his interviews, works, songs, public utterances, lyrics and life.
The only credit I can give them. They synchronize wonderful. That's all. They synchronize very - you would have thought that they were actually acting, but they were synching all the time, and that's a rough job.
I think it was just an opera. Now, you go to opera, you expect to see and hear what the opera is. So, it was Catfish Row. It was singers. Marvelous voices. It didn't make no difference what color they were.
He was a silly guy. Out - do the other guy. That was his effort at all times.
Cab Calloway
Bubbles was a very good dancer. Tremendous dancer. He was one of our leading dancers of the country at that time. And, of course, he didn't have much of a voice.
We didn't have any segregation at the Cotton Club. No. The Cotton Club was wide open, it was free.
Cab Calloway
At times as a performer they segregated us in some of theatres.
Cab Calloway
A movie and a stage show are two entirely different things. A picture, you can do anything you want. Change it, cut out a scene, put in a scene, take a scene out. They don't do that on stage.
You don't think it was because a white man wrote it, a black man wrote it, a green man wrote it. What - doesn't make a difference! Doesn't make a difference. I think he did a good job.
That's what George wrote! He wrote it. Why change it? There was this European company that I was speaking about awhile ago - course, didn't nobody know what Porgy was.
Cab Calloway
My audience was my life. What I did and how I did it, was all for my audience.
It's very difficult to photograph an opera. And they messed up on it. It just wasn't there. And I don't blame the Gershwins for taking it away. Of course, if they had gotten the original company to have done it, it would have been very good.
