By Kimberly Ramkhalawan
April 25, 2023
If ever you mention the musical genre ‘calypso’ around the world, the first name that usually is mentioned by non-Caribbean folks that comes to mind is Harry Belafonte.
But in actuality he was singing Jamaican Mento music, songs commonly sung with a guitar while Calypso had its roots in Trinbagonian music, a kaiso style which stemmed from western Africa. And while he was dubbed the ‘King of Calypso’, it was a title he often shied away from as he never participated in Calypso Monarch competitions in Trinidad.
Belafonte’s roots were of Jamaican ancestry, although having been born in Harlem New York, he would later spend his formative years with his grandmother in Jamaica only to return in the 1940s to serve in the US Navy during WWII, at the time when Lord Invader’s ‘Rum and Coca-Cola’ was taking a liking in America, propelling the calypso explosion in the US. At the time many of the ‘yankees,’ American forces based in Trinidad and Tobago and as fondly called by Trinidadians, had grown accustom to the calypso music genre and it Carnival traditions. Songs sung by Trinidadian calypsonians like Attila the Hun, King Radio, the Roaring Lion and the Lords Executor and Caresser made it big in the US
Fast forward ten years later, Belafonte would come out with his LP, Calypso, and the song that everyone loved was ‘Day-O’ better known as the Banana Boat song, a Jamaican mento song sung by dockworkers actually, that helped popularized outside its shores.
To him it was about changing the notions held of the Caribbean islands and its music before a mostly American white audience, and one he sought to highlight was the life held by the people of its plantations.
He was a civil rights activist of sorts, supporting Martin Luther King Jnr in his movement, and having helped bailed him out of jail when he was arrested down in Birmingham, Alabama. Belafonte did not perform in the south until 1961 because of its racial prejudice. He carried his political activism straight until the end, and was vocal of US Policy against Cuba, and later on policy against Venezuela during the George W Bush administration years, and even being present during Trump inauguration in the Women’s march in Washington.
Outside of his music, Belafonte starred in many movies, alongside his close friend and fellow Caribbean son of the soil, Sidney Poitier. His notable movies were Carmen Jones, and Islands in the Sun.
For many of the younger era, would recall his appearances singing with the Count on Sesame Street, as well as several shows done with the Muppets. His song ‘Jump In The Line Shake, Senora’ was popularized in American culture through the now cult classic film ‘Beetlejuice’ with a young Winona Ryder partying to the song with her new found ghost friends.
In 1989, Belafonte received the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts in 1994 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. In a 2007 interview, he stated that he had since retired from performing.
On April 25, 2023, Belafonte died from congestive heart failure at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at the age of 96.