Hi-De-Ho: The Life of Cab Calloway (Oxford University Press), by Alyn Shipton)

Cab Calloway was the wild man of swing whose kinetic act foreshadowed Prince some 50 years earlier. According to British music writer Alyn Shipton, Calloway also invented the “moonwalk” dance move (maybe we'll never know whether Michael Jackson rediscovered those moves purely by chance). Shipton's methodical chronicle includes interesting revelations about the workings of a music industry under the shadow of segregation and the mob as well as the many drug references in Calloway's songs. If properly understood, “Minnie the Moocher” makes lyrics from the psychedelic era sound positively square.