2023-04-26 06:16:12
The incomparable Harry Belafonte has died. With his music, he introduced the Caribbean air of the Calypso rhythm to African-American music. His contribution is essential to understand what this Jamaican-rooted genre, like Harry’s own ancestors, represents in the context of Afro-derived music that is now part of the culture in this hemisphere.
The Afro presence in the United States covers the southwestern United States; It occupies the area of New Orleans, St. Louis, the Mississippi basin and, further north, the New York neighborhood of Harlem where Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. was born in 1927. His father was of Dutch and Jamaican descent, while his mother was partly Scottish; both of humble origin.
Harlem culture was the starting point in Harry’s music. His musical journey was marked from 1956 with two pieces from his album Calypso which became very popular. I mean Banana Boat Song (Banana Boat Song) y Jamaica Farewell (Goodbye Jamaica), which show his emotional closeness to English-speaking Afro-Caribbean music. From these and other compositions, the Calypso delved into the soul of African-American music, especially in the jazz and the soul. Thus a fusion was produced that, with identity of origins, contributed the same from different geographical perspectives.
Banana Boat Song contains a lilting and happy rhythm and melody. It’s about a “work chant”, a way of saying music that Jamaican day laborers improvised long ago. A sample of how daily work affects the artistic, in this case music. Jamaica Farewell It leaves us with another breath when we hear it, since it is perceived slow and melancholic because it is the farewell music of those who emigrate.
With those two songs, Harry rose to fame. Since they were released, their contents reflected the affective commitment of the singer with the poorest. Consistent with this, he was a fighter for the civil rights of African-Americans against racial discrimination, a cause that identified him with Martin Luther King Jr.
Not only music, but also cinema was part of Harry Belafonte’s artistic life. He also did theater and received several awards. He is well remembered from the movie Island in the Sunof 1957 which suffered prohibitions Island in the Sun It was banned in several cities in the southern United States, since racism did not accept the love story starring the white actress Joan Fontaine and Harry. Everything reached the extreme of receiving threats from the dark Ku Klux Klan.
Among the artistic events of Harry Belafonte, his participation in the song is remembered We are the World when he added one of the 46 great voices of North American music that recorded it.
He was close to Cuba, its people and culture. He visited us on repeated occasions and with his person he ratified his spirit of solidarity with the project of the Cuban Revolution. His physical departure constitutes the loss of a great friend who at all times spoke out for the normalization of relations between the two countries. The many years of his affection for the Cuban people were recognized on July 23, 2020 when the Cuban State awarded him the Friendship Medal.
There were many visits he made to Cuba. On all those occasions she manifested the feelings of closeness and affection that he always professed. The death of Rey del Calypso, which occurred this Tuesday, April 25 at the age of 96, constitutes a sad event for our people, and for the entire world. A goodbye that emotionally makes us feel close.
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