The Cab Calloway Orchestra
The Cab Calloway Orchestra was a famous jazz band based at the Cotton Club in Harlem. For more than a decade it was one of America’s top jazz groups, with many different lineups of great players.
In 1930 Cab Calloway took over the Cotton Club from Duke Ellington and began recording for Brunswick and several ARC labels from 1930 to 1932. In 1932 he signed with Victor for a year, then returned to Brunswick from 1934 to 1936. In 1937 he joined Irving Mills’s Variety label, and when that label folded the sessions moved to Vocalion through 1939 and then OKeh through 1942.
When the Cotton Club closed in 1940, the band toured the United States. In 1941 Calloway fired Dizzy Gillespie after an onstage fight; Gillespie stabbed Calloway in the leg during the incident. The band broke up in the late 1940s.
The first Cab Calloway Orchestra included: Earres Prince (piano); Walter "Foots" Thomas and Thornton Blue (alto sax); Andrew Brown (tenor sax); Morris White (banjo); Jimmy Smith (tuba); DePriest Wheeler (trombone); Leroy Maxey (drums); R.Q. Dickerson and Lammar Wright (trumpets).
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 12:00 (CET).