Cab Calloway - St. James Infirmary Blues - 1930's - Betty Boop

One of the first times Max Fleischer's rotoscoping technique is used to plug both Cab Calloway's voice and moving figure into an animated space; Allowing the performance to exist in a dark, surreal realm that taps into blues mysticism and the occult.  It's not hell but certainly grim, there's morphing body horror, drugs and boooooooozing. The song itself is sung from the perspective of a soldier who, after emptying his pockets on prostitutes, dies of a venereal disease :( It's a relative of an old english folk tune "The Unfortunate Rake." For good measure I'm including the Minnie the Moocher episode. Both are fantastical depictions of the horror embedded in Blues and Jazz music, and watching these characters do "the Buzz" is endlessly entertaining to me.