Cab Calloway’s Legacy of Swing Comes to UT Tyler Cowan Center

January 11, 2001

Cab Calloway’s Legacy of Swing will perform at The University of Texas at Tyler Cowan Fine and Performing Arts Center on Thursday, Jan. 25, Susan Thomae-Morphew, Cowan Center director, has announced.

Sponsored by NBC 56, the show will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Vaughn Auditorium.

Featuring the unique big band sound and scatty vocal style that made Calloway famous, this lively performance includes the vocal talent of Calloway’s daughter, Chris, the 15-member Hi-De-Ho Orchestra and tap dancers Chester Whitmore and Charon Aldredge.

A singer and actress, Chris is heir to an American musical legacy. Her father, the “King of Hi-De-Ho,” was a world famous legend with his unique Big Band sound and his style of flamboyant jazz. Blanche Calloway, Cab’s sister, was one of the first female band leaders to front an all-male band in 1929, and was instrumental in launching her brother’s career.

The honoring of this rich and enduring musical tradition is the concept and heart of Chris’ current performance project “Legacy of Swing.”

Chris’ career began on the Ed Sullivan Show with an introduction to the world by her dad some 30 years ago. The majority of the past 20 years have been spent performing with her father, who died in 1994, and his Hi-De-Ho Orchestra. Together as a father/daughter team, they toured the United States, Europe, South America, Japan and Australia.

From her humble beginnings as a singing hat-check girl at New York’s Improvisation, the Catskill Mountains circuit and a brief sting with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, her Broadway career began with the acclaimed all-black production of “Hello Dolly,” starring Pearl Bailey and her dad, followed by a significant nine-month tour with the musical review “Euble” and then onto Hollywood where she hosted her own talk radio and music shows.

For tickets, contact the Cowan Center box office at (903) 566-7424.