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Harry Belafonte

Fifty years it took until this LP was released on CD. Since the beginning of the CD age, I was looking at it, you got almost everything from Harry Belafonte on CD, but not Belafonte Sings the Blues. My good old LP RCA Victor Living Stereo with the imprint had suffered somewhat with time. And now you can buy them with one click. That was the end of the fifties and early sixties, another way, because it takes time and patience to get to Harry Belafonte records. But the search for a disk from which they had heard, was to the Holy Grail, a Aventiure through dozens of small and large record stores. And when the girl he was finally found, it meant a more than one day to the field Now with 1-Click Ⓡ buy Amazon go.

As the father of my girlfriend flew to the U.S. occupation (which in 1960 was a great event), I have asked him to give me Belafonte's Calypso (the first LP for more than a million copies sold) brought along. If he did, but he looked at me with a face that made it very clear that I was not the right type for his daughter. The LP Belafonte at Carnegie Hall Ekke sent me from New York, and for that I am eternally grateful to him.

on the old LP are under the album title Belafonte Sings the Blues the songs, Belafonte sings. Three tracks from Ray Charles, one ( God Bless the Child ) by Billie Holiday. On the new CD there are names that RCA at that time (even in small print) is not worth mentioning were: Roy Eldridge, Don Fagerquist, Ben Webster, Plas Johnson, Hank Jones, Jimmy Rowles, Howard Roberts, Laurindo Almeida. For the RCA at that time were only hired musicians for background music, for jazz fans today are the big names. When Belafonte was famous, he has encouraged many young musicians. I will miss it, of course, not to mention that on Midnight Special 1962 a young man named Bob Dylan makes his first appearance.

Belafonte started in jazz clubs, at his first public appearance was none other than Charlie Parker to his side. Perhaps he would, like Johnny Hartman with Coltrane at his side to stick to it. A combination of Belafonte and Charlie Parker could have been something. But at that time began Folk Music to be a new thing, and Belafonte now imported the music of Jamaica to New York. After all, he had spent his youth as a part of. It's not the only one who does. If you look at the CD London Is The Place For Me: Trinidadian Calypso In London, 1950-1956 sounds of Lord Kitchener (which also has an excellent booklet), you realize that London is now under the spell of this music. brought in any case since 1948, the MV Empire Windrush the first immigrants from the Caribbean to London. Because the British Nationality Act of 1948 allowed the now.

Belafonte has gone his own way, who quickly that included what were later called World . He has over time become a commercial and also has bad kitsch sung. When he sings sweetly Scarlet Ribbons , resist with me always the hackles. But he has sung the song very early how to put on the Naxos CD Matilda, Matilda: Original recording can hear 1949-1954.

Belafonte is also critical as citizens of the United States its own path. The last year of the war he was a volunteer in the U.S. Navy, the fifties found him on the side of Martin Luther King. For the Civil Rights Movement, he is his life (financially) has occurred, there is Paul Robeson been his lifelong role model. He is also no political controversy out of the way gone. There is an old saying in the Days of Slavery: For example, when he attacked the Defense Colin Powell. There were those slaves who lived on the plantation, and there were those slaves who lived in the house. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master, do exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him. That gave you privilege. Colin Powell is committed to come into the house of the master, as long as he would serve the master, according to the master's purpose. And when Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture. And you do not hear much from those who live in the pasture .

He was on the blacklist during the McCarthy time, he was not served in hotels, because he was colored. But he is a straight line, as his role model Paul Robeson, went his way. If you read the interviews by Günter Amendt has led in the early eighties with him ( What moves me. Discussions with Günter Amendt Specifically Literature Verlag 1982), one can see that this man any more ist als ein Entertainer. 1997 hat Belafonte in einer Rede vor den Veteranen der Abraham Lincoln Brigade über Paul Robeson gesagt:

Shortly before he died, I visited him in Philadelphia. He was living at his sister's. And I looked at this giant of a man who was, quite frail in body, but still strong in spirit. And through all that had engulfed him -- McCarthyism, the difficult times that he faced in this country because of his beliefs, because of his resistance to oppression -- I looked at him, and I said, 'Paul, I must know. Was all that you have gone through, really worth it? Considering the platform you had gained, and how easy life could have been for you, was it worth it?' And he said, `Harry, make no mistake: there is no aspect of what I have done that was not worth it. Although we may not have achieved all the victories we set for ourselves - may not have achieved all the victories and all the goals we set for ourselves, beyond the victory itself, infinitely more important, what the journey '.

Half a century ago it was his voice, there were records like Calypso, Belafonte Sings the Blues and Belafonte at Carnegie Hall that fascinated me. They fascinate me today. But even more I admire his life.

Harry Belafonte is now 84th I have to congratulate even if he probably never learn.