SANTA MONICA, Calif. (Dec. 18, 2007) — Recipients of the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award, Trustees Award and Technical GRAMMY® Award were announced today by The Recording Academy®. Burt Bacharach, The Band, Cab Calloway, Doris Day, Itzhak Perlman, Max Roach and Earl Scruggs will receive The Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

 Chris to attend 2008 Grammys [3:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3206)

“This year’s recipients are a prestigious group of diverse and influential creators who have crafted or contributed to some of the most distinctive recordings in music history,” said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy. “These profoundly inspiring figures are being honored as legendary performers, creative architects and technical visionaries. Their outstanding accomplishments and passion for their craft have created a timeless legacy.”
The Lifetime Achievement Award honors lifelong artistic contributions to the recording medium while the Trustees Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the industry in a non-performing capacity. Both awards are determined by vote of The Recording Academy’s National Board of Trustees. Technical GRAMMY Award recipients are determined by vote of The Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing Advisory Council and Chapter Committees as well as The Academy’s Trustees. The award is presented to individuals and companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field.

Cab Calloway — A talented jazz singer and a superior scatter, Cab Calloway — the “Hi De Ho” man — became one of the greatest and most beloved figures on the entertainment scene in the early ’30s. In 1931, Calloway wrote his first hit, “Minnie The Moocher,” which sold more than 1 million copies. A “larger-than-life” figure, immortalized in cartoons and caricatures, he also led one of the most talented swing orchestras. After more than 60 years of performing, he conquered every branch of show business from nightclubs to radio and film and television to theater.

Chris Calloway, your “Main Queen” introduces herself as a singer and the torch bearer of the 60-year Calloway Legacy.

She plays her recordings and her father’s recordings of the same Harold Arlen songs.

She also plays her aunt Blanche Calloway singing her theme song “Growlin Dan” and herself singing the same song 70 years later.

You can’t make this stuff up.

 

 Chris Calloway - Celebration of a Legacy [10:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (5348)

Your “Main Queen” recounts life on the road in 1939 for Cab Calloway and his orchestra.

An incident took place at a “white dance” in Longview Texas involving Benny Payne Cab’s piano player at that time. It resulted in a racial riot. Great comments by Milt Hinton about Cab “Living Large.”

This is good stuff.

 

 Longview Texas 1939 [8:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1625)

This show picks up at the Cotton Club on the night that Cab forgot his lyrics.

It was his first national radio broadcast and Cab made a rather humorous mistake with his introduction of Irving Berlin and Oscar Levant.

It’s a funny story.

 

 Introducing Irvin Berlin [7:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1625)

In 1931 at the Cotton Club in New York City, Cab Calloway forgot the lyrics to the song he was singing and sang Hi De Hi De Ho.

Your Main Queen begs the question where did Hi De Ho come from? She introduces Blanche Calloway, Cab’s older sister, on a recording with Louis Armstrong in 1924, as the source of the Hi De Ho legacy.

 

 Where did the Hi De Ho come from? [8:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3219)

On this show, “Your Main Queen” tells the story of a young Cab Calloway growing up on the streets of Baltimore, hustling newspapers and shooting craps on the church steps.

Oh we do love those bad boys. You WILL enjoy this insight into Cab’s youth.

 

 Not Always a Star [6:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2834)

This kick-off show introduces the “Cab Calloway Heartbeat of Hi De Ho” Podcast.

It also introduces “Your Main Queen Chris Calloway (daughter to Cab) a solid sender of a chirping canary and gasser of an MC.” There is a lot of Cab Calloway singing Hi De Ho, Hi De Ho and the answer to the question “What IS the Heartbeat of Hi De Ho?” Check it out.

 

 What is the Heartbeat of Hi De Ho? [12:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3419)