All hail to the ‘King Of Calypso’ when Harry turns 93
The original king of calypso
will have to take a back-seat
to generations of performers
yearning to honor the life and
legacy of Harry Belafonte on
the anniversary of his March
1, 1927 birthdate.
Actually, the legendary
actor, singer, songwriter,
author and activist is expected
to be front and center inside
Harlem’s Apollo Theater when
hip-hop poet and Academy
award winner Common, percussionist
Sheila E., Grammy
winner Maxwell, Gael Faye,
John Forte, Talib Kweli, Thelma
Plum, Yemen Blues Impact
Repertory Theatre, Resistance
Revival Chorus and Trinidad
& Tobago’s acclaimed monarch
the Mighty Sparrow hail the
world’s first crowned king of
the Caribbean genre on his
93rd birthday.
Slated to be present for
the uptown celebration, the
acclaimed icon will likely reminisce
the momentous occasions
he spent inside the landmark
showplace and also his
youthful frolics through Harlem
where he was born and
reared.
Born in the Village, Harold
George Bellanfanti Jr., seemed
to have had a charmed life from
birth. For the record he was
named in honor of his father,
the senior namesake from the
island of Martinique and Jamaican
mother Melvine (Love) and
by the time he was a teenager
he had already scored a lead
role with Harlem’s American
Negro Theater.
Sidney Poitier was his
understudy there but he studied
alongside Marlon Brando
and other notables.
In retrospect his timeline to
success reads like an incredibly
accomplished bucket-list to
greatness. The fact he spent his
early years in a remote country
parish with his grandmother
could have shaped much of
the trajectory to his ambitious
multifaceted life in America.
Reportedly, the matriarch he
lived with from 1935 to 1940
was “the white daughter of a
Scottish father who migrated
to the island to oversee a plantation.”
Caribbean L 14 ife, Feb. 28-Mar. 5, 2020
His father’s father was “a
Dutch Jew” who landed in the
Caribbean after realizing he
would not make his fortune in
gold and diamonds.
On occasion the biracial,
Caribbean offspring is known
to reflect on his childhood
experiences and there were
trying times which tested his
mettle.
And while those tales often
engage audiences, generations
fortunate enough to be invited
into the nostalgia, seem fixated
on a chorus he repeated —
”Day-O, Day-O day da light and
mi wan’ go home.”
The hit refrain from the
“Jamaica’s Banana Boat Song”
captivated audiences in 1956.
A single from the album
“Calypso,” the infectious tune
soared to number five and
remained on the charts for a
record 31 weeks.
It reaped unprecedented
sales of one million.
History records that its lyrical,
Harry Belafonte Almanac 1954. Wikipedia
folk melody prompted an
accounting of future music
sales and also attributed to the
launching of a gala reward ceremony
now acclaimed as the
Grammy Awards.
The recording outsold those
of Elvis Presley, the king of
rock and roll.
Soon after Belafonte introduced
“Mathilda,” “Jump in the
Line” and other infectious Caribbean
tracks.
He was dubbed the king of
calypso.
Europeans were particularly
endeared by the cadence and
flow of the songs.
No other artists had ever
popularized Caribbean music.
In retrospect, Belafonte
talks candidly about German
audiences and how at his concerts
they embraced him and
his import.
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