Get that zoot suit pressed

Flamboyant Cab Calloway was an icon of 1930s jazz.

Calloway wore a flashy zoot suit sometimes with a wide-brimmed felt hat. He was a hep cat credited with inventing slang jive phrases.

A crowd-pleaser, he led an orchestra that drew fans to its shows at Harlem’s Cotton Club.

	If you go WHAT: The Cab Calloway Orchestra with singer Alice Tan Ridley WHEN: 3 p.m. Jan. 15 WHERE: Popejoy Hall, Center for the Arts, UNM campus HOW MUCH: $19, $29 and $39 in advance at www.unmtickets.com, by calling 925-5858 or toll-free 877-664-8661 at ticket offices in the UNM Bookstore and the Pit, and at area Albertsons supermarkets or at the door

Calloway’s most famous song was “Minnie the Moocher” and his singing quote from the song was the signature phrase “Hi De Ho!”

Calloway’s grandson, Calloway Brooks, has stepped into his late grandfather’s role in leading the touring Cab Calloway Orchestra, which will perform Jan. 15 at Popejoy Hall. The show has the 1930s’ orchestra’s original orchestrations.

“We close with ‘Minnie the Moocher.’ It’s really staged great,” Alice Tan Ridley, the female singer on the orchestra’s winter tour, said in a phone interview.

If Brooks will be in a retro loose-fitting zoot suit, Ridley promised she’ll be dressed in something hot.

“I will have on a skimpy red gown, probably with a leg showing,” she said. “I love the way they used to dress. The men with their (watch) chains hanging out of their zoot suit pants pockets, the hats.”

Among the songs Ridley said she’ll sing are “Minnie the Moocher,” “Stormy Weather” and “Embraceable You.”

Until a few years ago, Ridley’s singing stages were New York City subway stations.

“I did that for more than 23 years. I sang in the major stations – 42nd Street, 34th Street, 14th Street,” she said. “I had to. I had two kids. So I had to make sure that there was a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs, shoes on their feet. That was my total income.”

One of her children is Gabourey Sidibe, who starred in the film “Precious.”

Ridley’s life took a turn for the good when she sang on the reality TV show “America’s Got Talent” in 2010. The first song she did on the show was “At Last,” the hit tune that Etta James popularized.

“I’m so happy I chose that song. It was the perfect first song to do. It let people know that I’m not whistling Dixie here,” she said. “I made it to the semifinals. I had a wonderful time on the show. For me, being on the show was priceless.”

Even during the period that she appeared on “America’s Got Talent,” Ridley continued to perform in subway stations. “You don’t get a check from those television shows,” she said.

But since those TV appearances, Ridley has put the subway singing behind her. Besides performing with the Cab Calloway Orchestra, she is fronting her own band.

“Now I’m known all over the world,” she said.

Cab Calloway’s daughter – Calloway Brooks’ aunt – was jazz vocalist Chris Calloway, who had performed with her father’s band. A longtime Santa Fe resident, she died in 2008 of breast cancer.