SONG OF THE DAY

“Troubles” by Harry Belafonte (Belafonte, RCA Victor, 1956). Written by Harry Belafonte.

INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)

– Harold George “Harry” Belafonte, Jr. (originally Belafonete; born March 1, 1927) is an American musician, singer, actor, and social activist.

– One of the most successful pop singers in history, he was dubbed the “King of Calypso,” a title which he was very reluctant to accept (according to the documentary Calypso Dreams) for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s.

– Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing the “Banana Boat Song”, with its signature lyric “Day-O.”

– Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for civil rights and humanitarian causes, and was a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Bush Administration.

РBorn in New York City, New York, Belafonte was the son of Melvine (n̩e Love), a housekeeper (of Jamaican descent), and Harold George Belafonete, Sr., a Martinican who worked as chef in the Royal Navy.

– From 1932 to 1940, he lived with his grandmother in the village of Aboukir in her native country of Jamaica.

– When he returned to New York City he attended George Washington High School after which he joined the Navy and served during World War II.

– At the end of the 1940s, he took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator alongside Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur, and Sidney Poitier, while performing with the American Negro Theatre.

– He subsequently received a Tony Award for his participation in the Broadway revue John Murray Anderson’s Almanac.

– Belafonte started his career in music as a club singer in New York, to pay for his acting classes. The first time he appeared in front of an audience he was backed by the Charlie Parker band, which included Charlie Parker himself, Max Roach, and Miles Davis among others.

– At first he was a pop singer, launching his recording career on the Roost label in 1949, but later he developed a keen interest in folk music, learning material through the Library of Congress’ American folk songs archives.

– With guitarist and friend Millard Thomas, Belafonte soon made his debut at the legendary jazz club The Village Vanguard.

– In 1952 he received a contract with RCA Victor. His first wide-release single, which went on to become his “signature” song with audience participation in virtually all his live performances, was “Matilda”, recorded April 27, 1953.

– His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) became the first LP to sell over 1 million copies (Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” and Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons”, both singles, had previously surpassed the 1 million mark).

– While primarily known for his Calypso songs, Belafonte has recorded in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards.

– Belafonte continued to record for RCA through the 1950s to the 1970s. Two live albums, both recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1959 and 1960, enjoyed critical and commercial success.

– He was one of many entertainers recruited by Frank Sinatra to perform at the Inaugural gala of President John F. Kennedy in 1961.

– His album Midnight Special (1962) featured the first-ever recorded appearance by a then young harmonica player named Bob Dylan.

– Belafonte has received a Grammy Award for the albums Swing Dat Hammer (1960) and An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba (1965). The latter album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under Apartheid.

– He has been awarded six Gold Records.

– An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Friends, a soundtrack and video of a televised concert were released in 1997 by Island Records.

– The Long Road to Freedom, An Anthology of Black Music, a huge multi-artist project recorded during the 1960s and 1970s while he was still with RCA, was finally released by the label in 2001. The album was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Awards for Best Boxed Recording Package, for Best Album Notes and for Best Historical Album.

– Belafonte was the first black man to win an Emmy, with his first solo TV special Tonight with Belafonte (1959).

– He was also a guest star on a memorable episode of The Muppet Show in 1978, in which he sang his signature song “Day-O” on television for the very first time. However, the episode is best known for Belafonte singing the spiritual song, “Turn the World Around,” that is performed with Muppets designed like African tribal masks. It has become one of the most famous performances in the series. It was reported to be Jim Henson’s favorite episode, and Belafonte did a reprise of the song at Henson’s memorial in 1990.

– Belafonte received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1989.

– He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994 and he won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.

– He gave his last concert on the 25th of October 2003, a benefit concert for the Atlanta Opera.

– In a 2007 interview he stated that he has since retired from performing.

– Belafonte has starred in several films. His first major film role was in Bright Road (1953), in which he appeared alongside Dorothy Dandridge.

– The two subsequently starred in Otto Preminger’s hit musical Carmen Jones (1954). Ironically, Belafonte’s lyrics in the film were dubbed by an opera singer, as Belafonte’s own singing voice was seen as unsuitable for the role.

– Using his star clout, Belafonte was subsequently able to realize several then-controversial film roles. In 1957’s Island in the Sun, there are hints of an affair between Belafonte’s character and Joan Fontaine. In 1959, he starred in and produced Robert Wise’s Odds Against Tomorrow, in which he plays a bank robber uncomfortably teamed with a racist partner (Robert Ryan). He also co-starred with Inger Stevens in The World, the Flesh and the Devil.

– Belafonte was offered the role of Porgy in Otto Preminger’s Porgy and Bess, where he would have once again starred opposite Dandridge, but he refused the role because he objected to the racial stereotyping of blacks in the story.

– In 1984, Belafonte produced and scored the musical film Beat Street, dealing with the rise of hip-hop culture.

– His acting in Robert Altman’s jazz age drama Kansas City (1996) garnered him the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor.

– In late 2006, Belafonte appeared in the role of Nelson, a friend of an employee of the Ambassador Hotel played by Anthony Hopkins, in Bobby, Emilio Estevez’s ensemble drama about the assassination of Robert Kennedy.

– Belafonte’s political beliefs are greatly inspired by the man that he still views to this day as his mentor: singer and activist Paul Robeson, a man who was in his time a controversial figure for strongly supporting the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War. He strongly opposed not only racial prejudice in the United States, but also western colonialism in Africa.

– Like Robeson and other black entertainers, Belafonte’s success in the arts did not protect him from racial discrimination, particularly in the American South. As a result, he refused to perform in the South from 1954 until 1961.

– In 1960, President John F. Kennedy named Belafonte cultural advisor to the Peace Corps.

– Belafonte was an early supporter of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s confidants. He provided for King’s family, since King made only $8,000 a year as a preacher. He bailed King out of the Birmingham City Jail and raised thousands of dollars to release other imprisoned civil rights protesters. He financed the Freedom Rides, supported voter registration drives, and helped to organize the March on Washington in 1963.

– Like many civil rights activists, Belafonte was blacklisted during the McCarthy era.

– In 1968, Belafonte appeared on a Petula Clark primetime television special on NBC. In the middle of a song, Clark smiled and briefly touched Belafonte’s arm, which made the show’s sponsor, Plymouth Motors, nervous. Plymouth wanted to cut out the segment, but Clark, who had ownership of the special, told NBC that the performance would be shown intact or she would not allow the special to be aired at all. American newspapers published articles reporting the controversy and, when the special aired, it grabbed high viewing figures.

– Belafonte appeared on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and performed a controversial “Mardi Gras” number with footage intercut from the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots. CBS censors deleted the entire segment from the program.

– In 1985, he was one of the organizers behind the Grammy Award winning song “We Are the World”, a multi-artist effort to raise funds for Africa, and performed in the Live Aid concert that same year.

– In 1987, he received an appointment to UNICEF as a goodwill ambassador. Following his appointment, Belafonte traveled to Dakar, Senegal, where he served as chairman of the International Symposium of Artists and Intellectuals for African Children. He also helped to raise funds – alongside more than 20 other artists – in the largest concert ever held in sub-Saharan Africa.

– In 2001 he went to South Africa to support the campaign against HIV/AIDS. In 2002, Africare awarded him the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award for his efforts to assist Africa.

– On June 27, 2006, Belafonte was the recipient of the BET Humanitarian Award at the 2006 BET Awards.

– He was named one of nine 2006 Impact Award recipients by AARP The Magazine.

– Belafonte is additionally known for his visit to Cuba which helped ensure hip-hop’s place in Cuban society. According to Geoffrey Baker’s article “Hip hop, Revolucion! Nationalizing Rap in Cuba,” in 1999, Belafonte met with representatives of the rap community immediately before meeting with Fidel Castro. This meeting resulted in Castro’s personal approval of (and hence the government’s involvement in), the incorporation of rap into his country’s culture.In a 2003 interview, Belafonte reflected upon this meeting’s influence:
“When I went back to Havana a couple years later, the people in the hip-hop community came to see me and we hung out for a bit. They thanked me profusely and I said, why? and they said, because, your little conversation with Fidel and the Minister of Culture on hip-hop led to there being a special division within the ministry and we’ve got our own studio.”

ALLMUSIC.COM REVIEW (4 out of 5 stars)

“Belafonte’s second album includes songs featured in the Broadway production of Three for Tonight, which starred Belafonte along with Gower and Marge Champion. The collection again featured a variety of material, which would become a hallmark with his albums up until the mid-1960s. But now, for the first time, the power of Belafonte’s interpretive skills become apparent, especially with songs culled from field recordings of chain gangs and southern prisons. “Jump Down, Spin Around” and “Sylvie” were both popularized by Leadbelly. The hammer song “Water Boy” and the spirituals “Take My Mother Home” and “Noah” are among the most powerful performances in Belafonte’s career. Also included is Belafonte’s second recording of one of his most requested songs, the calypso “Matilda.” This version was far superior to his first effort, released only on a single in 1953. This album was swept along with the success of Belafonte’s next release, the million-selling Calypso, and was #1 on Billboard’s album charts for six weeks, remaining on the charts for over a year.” – Cary Ginell