How Big Can You Get: 100 years Of Cab Calloway With Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Plays 11/13, 11/14

How Big Can You Get: 100 Years of Cab Calloway with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy: Dance Cabaret Fri & Sat, Nov 13 & 14, 2009, 8 pm Doors open at 7 pm

America's favorite retro dance band is big, and it's bad. The award-winning, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy salutes the jumpin' jazz and sassy swing of "The Hi De Ho Man," iconic singer and bandleader Cab Calloway, at UConn's Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts on Friday and Saturday, November 13 and 14, at 8 pm. From entertaining at the White House, to a cameo role in the instant cult classic Swingers, to a half-time performance at the Super Bowl, BBVD revs up the raucous swing sounds of the past as today's movers and shakers take to the dance floor.

How Big Can You Get, named for one of Calloway's brassy musical numbers, is a career milestone for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and a skilled, enthusiastic tribute to Cab Calloway who rocked audiences for generations at Harlem's Cotton Club, on radio and record gigs, in films (from Betty Boop shorts to The Blues Brothers), on stage (Porgy and Bess) and on television (Sesame Street). He performed with Louis Armstrong, who taught him "scat" singing, and wrote The Hepster's Dictionary that translated jive words like "Gabriels" (trumpets) and "rug cutters" (dancers) for mainstream Americans whose descendents are now only too happy to revive saddle oxfords, flip fedoras and zoot suits and bring the jitterbug back to the dance floor. Band leader Scotty Morrison explains that BBVD wants to "put a light on Cab's legacy." All About Jazz says, "It's also a revelatory moment for the band, whose musicianship, fire and interpretive powers are at an all-time high."

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy carries on the tradition of the legendary big bands, like the Glen Miller Orchestra and the Count Basie Big Band, by touring non-stop, performing more than 100 concerts each year to sell-out crowds in sites as far flung as Hawaii and Finland, and collaborating with symphonies from Hartford to Dayton. Committed to the music and swing-era lifestyle, the group's members are renowned for their impeccable performances, classic suit-and-fedora styling, and gentlemanly demeanor. Rolling Stone magazine calls them "the sultans of swing."

Get hep to the jive with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at the Jorgensen Cabaret. There's nothing like it for sheer enjoyment and relaxation, with light dinner fare and dessert ($3-$10; cash bar), and the best entertainment around in a cozy, candlelit nightclub setting, with tables on the floor.

Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts is located at 2132 Hillside Road on the UConn campus in Storrs. Regular tickets are $34, $38 and $45, with some discounts available. For tickets and information, call the Box Office at 860.486.4226, Monday through Friday, 11 am-5 pm, or order online at jorgensen.uconn.edu. Convenient free parking is available across the street in the North Parking Garage.

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