I’ve long thought that the great PBS series “American Masters” (9 p.m., check local listings) should really be called “American Originals.” And no one better deserves or personifies that title than tonight’s “Masters” subject, Cab Calloway.

A fixture of Harlem’s famous Cotton Club, Calloway performed with such jazz greats as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong for all-white audiences visiting the black neighborhood during its artistic renaissance. More than a singer, Calloway used his voice as a musical instrument, filling his songs with freestyle scat lyrics, the most famous being the “Hi-De-Hi-De-Hi-De-Hi” section of his hit song “Minnie the Moocher.”

Released in 1931, “Minnie” became the first million-selling record by a black artist to cross over to white audiences. Audience members loved to sing back to Calloway during the scat interlude, seemingly oblivious to the many references to street life and drug use embedded in the song’s casual lyrics.

A generation before folks started noticing drug references in popular music, Calloway was walking, or rather dancing, a fine line between the high and low, the black and white and the straight-laced and “hep” culture.

This “Masters” includes a clip of Calloway promoting his 1938 book, “A Hepster’s Dictionary,” a compendium of jazz patois that still influences the language.

We also see Calloway’s rousing turn in the 1980 musical comedy “The Blues Brothers,” where he performed “Minnie” for a live studio audience of more than 5,000 rock fans who had never heard of him. As director John Landis recalls here, he quickly had them in the palm of his hand. Calloway died in 1994, original to the end.

Tonight’s other highlights

• Auditions continue on “The Voice” (7 p.m., NBC).

• Love is blind on “House” (8 p.m., Fox).

• Even the innocent return on “Alcatraz” (8 p.m., Fox).

• The president and first lady host a celebration of blues music on “In Performance at the White House” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings). Guests include Jeff Beck and B.B. King.

• Homicide claims a shock jock on “Hawaii Five-O” (9 p.m., CBS).

• Nick Jonas guest-stars on “Smash” (7 p.m., NBC).

• Murder victims are discovered wearing fairy tale outfits on “Castle” (9p.m., ABC).