When Gloucester resident Charles McGinn went for breakfast with his wife Anne one morning a couple of weeks ago, he never thought fond memories from his childhood involving the legendary scat singer Cab Calloway would come flashing back to him.
"We had gone to North Beverly to eat and we looked up and saw a poster in the window of a nearby Stop & Shop," McGinn, 55, who lives in Bay View, recalled.
The poster was advertising a concert in Marblehead featuring the music of Cab Calloway with a band led by the American icon's grandson, C.B. "Chris" Calloway Brooks, at Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead.
With that, McGinn's mind went back many years to one of his favorite uncles, George Kaiser, who had managed the famous jazz singer and band leader during his heyday in the mid-to-late 1930s.
So, quicker than you could say, "Minnie the Moocher," McGinn bought two tickets to the concert and then went home to put together a special memory book on Calloway to give to the singer's grandson.
"My uncle died about 15 years ago in Florida, but he left behind lots of photos of Calloway and his orchestra," McGinn said. And since McGinn owns Wells Bindery in Waltham, he was easily able to make copies of the photos and put them together in a book that he did indeed present to Chris Calloway just before the concert.
"Chris was very gracious and grateful and he told me, 'Wow, I haven't seen any of these pictures before.' He also seemed to remember my uncle," said McGinn, a native of Montreal who has lived in Gloucester for 20 years.
Then the two had their pictures taken together.
"The concert was a lot of fun" McGinn said, adding that Chris' band played a lot of his grandfather's famous hits — songs such as "St. James Infirmary, "Geechie Joe," "Are You Hep to Jive?" "Such a BeBop Guy," "The Fastest Tune Ever Written" and of course, "Minnie."
"The concert was great and it was a lot of fun and afterwards they played music for dancing," McGinn said. "I remember Cab Calloway's music as a young child and it was great to hear it again.'
About his uncle, McGinn said Kaiser traveled with Calloway's music makers about four years until he married and got off the road.
"My mother (Grace who lives in Montreal) remembers my uncle (her brother) coming home and bringing with him a money belt" where he kept his dough while traveling, McGinn said.
"My grandmother would then hide it in the apartment in the Bronx until he could get to the bank."
McGinn said his mother would sometimes go to the theater with her brother to see Calloway. Calloway would always ask her what song she wanted to hear.
Calloway's orchestra, which was the most popular African-American band in the '30s and '40s, featured such famous musicians as Dizzy Gillespie, Doc Cheatham, Ben Webster, Leon "Chu" Berry and Danny Barker.
In his later years, Calloway also appeared in several movies including "The Cotton Club" and "The Blues Brothers." He died in 1994 at age 86.
"My uncle always spoke very highly of Calloway," McGinn said, "and he (Cab) must have been quite a guy."
