Back when Harlem was the capital of New York nightlife, when clubs were rigidly segregated and the performers were black and the audience white, the Cotton Club, run by notorious gangsters, was the pinnacle of the jazz scene. The joint was already jumping with the Ellington Band, which later moved on and was replaced by the heppest cat of all, Cab Calloway. "Let me tell you ‘bout the Jumpin’ Jive," sang Calloway, who invented the "Hepster's Dictionary of Jive Talk," his very own special lingo belted out in his numerous hits: "Panama, Shanama, Swanee shore,/Let me dig that jive some more." Often seen wearing a zoot suit and swinging and gyrating before countless audiences, Cab Calloway and his Cotton Club Band were best known for "Minnie the Moocher," a song about a "red-hot hootchie-cootcher," a woman with a heart "as big as a whale." The song made Calloway the undisputed King of Hi-De-Ho. His chorus later paid tribute to him when singing the refrain in, "He’s the hi-de-ho miracle man," a song in which Calloway demonstrated both his extraordinary showmanship and the astounding range of his voice. With Calloway, the Cotton Club eclipsed even the Stork Club and Connie’s Inn, among other famous haunts. Calloway headed to Hollywood in the 1930s, later performed solo well into his eighties, and died in 1995. Ellington, of course, went on to become America’s most famous jazz musician, toured the world, composed, directed and recorded phenomenal works, and gathered innumerable awards in his stellar career.

Although the Cotton Club fell on hard times for a number of years and is no longer at its original location, it’s alive and swinging again during the new Harlem Renaissance. Frequent blues and jazz shows, including buffet dinners, are offered as well as weekend gospel brunches. The Club is available for private functions; call for group rates and availability.