Cab turned 115 years-old this Christmas. This short catches his inimitable charisma and talent. It begins in the Cotton Club with a radio announcer sitting at a table setting up the scene for its millions of listeners (and reminding us the Cotton Club was the first to do live national broadcasts outside of a studio and instrumental in spreading the new sounds of jazz and swing across the country). It also contains a short glimpse of the legendary Lafayette Theater's marquee at night (the theatre that was home to America's first black theatre company-- and the place where a very young Orson Welles staged his famous version of Macbeth with an all black cast). It, like the Cotton Club, are long gone-- but both-- and Cab-- live on in "Jitterbug!"
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DC CopelandMulti-hyphenate with a penchant for writing. Archives
July 2023
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