We are being bombarded with posters to the effect that Tony Pastor and his orchestra are going to be at Kirkland House for their spring dance next Thursday night. Just for the record: Pastor used to sing with Artie Shaw, but his band is a completely new one and doesn't have any famous swing men, nor does it pretend to play in the Shaw manner (cheers). The one Shavian remnant is the old Shaw library of some hundreds of original and standard tunes. So if you insist on hearing "Back Bay Shuffle" or "Begin the Beguine," you can get it. While the band doesn't play great swing, from its records and the reports I have been able to get, it plays excellent dance music.

This, with the added attraction of swelegant looking Kay Foster (voted by Downbeat to have the best looking legs in the business) and who, in my humble opinion, does a very good Job of Imitating Mildred Bailey, should make for a pleasant evening.

Two years ago, the only reason anybody wanted to her Cab Calloway was to see the King of Hi-Di-Ho tear the stage into small splinters, put his larynx to such weird uses as gargling "Chinese Rhythm", and moan the immortal "Minnie The Moocher".

Don't get me wrong--there's nothing wrong with Calloway--soft spoken and shrewd--he's one of the smartest showmen around. Staying up on the top as an ace attraction for years is no small job--and he's still doing it. And don't let any of this stuff about Cab being king of the tea (marihuanja) fiends fool you. He wouldn't still be going if he consumed the amount of dope he was reputed to. This whackiness legend is strictly for the customers.

But my kick with the band was that as soon as Cab stepped off the stage, there was nothing there but a rather noisy brass section and an exceedingly wobbly hunk of rhythm. Now, however His Highness has stepped into the market and returned with several juicy chunks of swing--namely Chu Berry on tenor sax, Cozy Cole on drums, Milton Hinton on bass, Hilton Jefferson on alto, Kay Johnson on trombone, Jerry Blake on clarinet and a kid trumpet player named Danny Barker.

Chu has always been my favorite tenor sax man. Some time ago he made a record of "Limehouse Blues" with some of the boys from the band for Variety Records. There was one lick in the record that I like especially, and when I next heard the band, I asked him to play me some "Limehouse" and especially that one phrase. So sitting in his dressing room, with one of the trombone men playing guitar, Mr. Berry played me twenty minutes of "Limehouse Blues" at a murderous tempo--all of it built around this one idea I had mentioned.

Cozy is a marvelous drummer, noted especially for his amazingly powerful press roll, that being a steady roll gotten by sticks on a snare drum, with a snap that gives it a swell lift. Listen to records like "Ratamacue" and "Crescendo in Drums" by Cab on Vocalion or "Shufflin' at The Hollywood" (Victor-Lionel Hampden) and you'll get the general idea.

Hinton is the bass man that has made the pickup combinations that Lionel Hampden has been using for his Victor records really sound like something. If you want to hear fast bass work that will make Bob Haggert (Bob Crosby's band) look to his laurels as king-pin of the broken rhythm stylists, Hinton has a concerto, "Plucking the Bass," released last week on Vocalion, that will really make you sit up and take notice. Barker is the new trumpet man Calloway added only a short while ago and plays much in the manner of Roy Eldridge. Jefferson is the terrific alto man formerly with Fletcher Henderson.

Therefore you go down to the Southland to hear the Cab, you'll hear a band that is interesting on its own account, and has the only person in the world besides Ethel Waters that can make "Mrs. Otis Regrets" have that proper flavor.

Records: Old times return. Artie Shaw has made a new record for Victor with his new 32 piece band. Announced as "something entirely new", this is a poor copy of the Andre Kostelanetz style of dance arranging which Kostelanetz has been doing for the last five years. It may be just coincidence that Shaw used to work in Kostelanetz's clarinet section. Only original note is the hot clarinet against a string background. But even this Shaw did three years ago with his first band (see "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" for an example. Brunswick.), so that once again Mr. Shaw gets the scarlet covered roll of Scott's. The tunes are some Mexican ditties that weren't too sharp either before or after recording . . .

Duke Ellington has done his first record for Victor, "Jack the Bear" and "Morning Glory". First is one of those esoteric stomps for which the Duke is famous, featuring marvelous bass by Jimmy Blanton. Latter has good trumpet by Rex Stewart. Recommended to those used to Duke's musical intricacies.