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- Artist: Cab Calloway
- Rating:
- Release Date: 1935 -1945
- Total Time: 64:13
- Type: Compilation (best of)
- Genre: Jazz
Review
Cab Calloway was a gloriously outsized manifestation of all that was frantic in the first full flowering of prohibition-era jazz. Dressed with all the flash of a brand new Cadillac, leading a crack band who could swing and sway with both abandon and precision, and spinning demi-monde tales of wild good times complete with illegal party favors, Calloway was a joyous personification of America's id at a time when such celebrations were hardly the stuff of common currency. Calloway's most popular music was recorded during the early to mid-'30s, but when more polished swing sounds supplanted his earlier style, Cab wasn't afraid to move with the times and led a top-notch big band capable of playing more contemporary music while still delivering the free-wheeling punch Calloway's personality demanded. Are You Hep to the Jive? is a great compilation from Columbia's Legacy series that brings together 22 sides Calloway waxed for Vocalion, Okeh, and Columbia between 1939 and 1947, and shows beyond a doubt Cab's muse was still in fine fettle at this point in his career. Calloway's band was filled with first-class talent, and the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Chu Berry, Milt Hinton, and Jonah Jones can be heard on the selections included here, but as great as the band is (and they swing with potent, joyous force throughout this disc), it's Calloway's 100-proof charisma, his unabridged lexicon of jive speak and his top-shelf scatting skills that bring this collection to life, and the fine madness of "Are You All Reet?," "A Chicken Ain't Nothin' But a Bird," "Tarzan of Harlem," and "Who's Yehoodi?" is as satisfying as a cold drink on a warm day. If this isn't quite the definitive Cab Calloway disc, Are You Hep to the Jive? is an excellent overview of his work in the '40s, and it's solid fun from first note to last. ~ Mark Deming, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Boo-Wah Boo-Wah | Larry Clinton, Buster Harding | Cab Calloway | (2:49) |
| Are You All Reet? | Cab Calloway, Jack Palmer | Cab Calloway | (3:04) |
| Hey Now, Hey Now | Cab Calloway, |
Cab Calloway | (2:55) |
| Everybody Eats When They Come to My House (Lyrics) | Cab Calloway | (2:46) | |
| Are You Hep to the Jive? (Lyrics) | Cab Calloway, Buck Ram | Cab Calloway | (2:50) |
| The Calloway Boogie | Cab Calloway | Cab Calloway | (3:04) |
| Hep Cat's Love Song | Cab Calloway, Andy Gibson, |
Cab Calloway | (3:03) |
| Papa's in Bed with His Britches On | Jesse Stone | Cab Calloway | (2:32) |
| What's Buzzin' Cousin? [#] | Mack Gordon, |
Cab Calloway | (2:42) |
| Twee-Twee-Tweet | Robert Maxwell, |
Cab Calloway | (2:46) |
| Come on with the "Come On" | Cab Calloway, Andy Gibson | Cab Calloway | (2:56) |
| Chant of the Jungle [#] | Nacio Herb Brown, Arthur Freed | Cab Calloway | (3:22) |
| I Want to Rock | Larry Clinton, Buster Harding | Cab Calloway | (2:49) |
| Oh! Gram'Pa | Cab Calloway | (3:03) | |
| The Jungle King (You Ain't Done a Doggone Thing) | Mort Dixon | Cab Calloway | (3:16) |
| Don't Falter at the Alter [#] | Cab Calloway | Cab Calloway | (2:44) |
| Who's Yehoodi? | Matt Dennis, |
Cab Calloway | (3:11) |
| A Chicken Ain't Nothin' But a Bird | Cab Calloway | (2:53) | |
| Tarzan of Harlem | Irving Mills, Buck Ram, |
Cab Calloway | (2:48) |
| Minnie the Moocher (Lyrics) | Cab Calloway, Irving Mills, |
Cab Calloway | (3:16) |
| Boog It | Cab Calloway, Buck Ram, Jack Palmer | Cab Calloway | (2:57) |
| Foo a Little Bally-Hoo | Cab Calloway, Jack Palmer, Buster Harding | Cab Calloway | (3:01) |
