Cohen Comments on Hip Lexicographer Calloway on Radio 4

On 28 October 2014, CMCI cultural historian Dr Harvey G Cohen appeared on the Radio 4 documentary “Dr Hepcat and the Hepcat’s Dictionary,” which focused on African American entertainer Cab Calloway’s best-selling 1938 book “The Hepster’s Dictionary,” which delineated the Harlem slang of the 1920s and 1930s. Cohen commented on the struggles that famous black musicians like Calloway, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington experienced in the late 1930s as jazz during the Swing Era became America’s most popular music, yet African Americans were denied the best financial opportunities during this period because of rampant discrimination even though they were largely the originators of the music. To hear the entire programme and enhance your “jive” vocabulary, consult the iPlayer: