TV Radio Mirror (Jul - Dec 1962)

Bobby Scott Music Editor DEC. 1962 Harry Belafonte: • To the club-owner, Belafonte means business ... to the television network people, Belafonte means ratings ... to the record stores, Belafonte means records crossing the counter ... to the fans, Belafonte means exciting performing, ethnic excursions and dramatic experiences. But to the people around Harry, who contribute their talents to his desire and need, no matter in what capacity, Harry Belafonte means hard work. Some performers feel that plenty of time is enough time to work out tunes and arrangements and all the extramusical loose ends that need tying up. With Harry there is no limit. Only trial and error, until the tune shapes up or is, as is the case with a great deal of material, shipped out. Harry is a demon when it comes to rehearsing his own small combo, which travels with him. But no one hollers, since Harry works as much as anyone. He will sing a tune until, almost naturally, it begins to shape itself. It would appear that he tries to become so familiar with a piece that its structural points, lyric message and vitality, cannot remain hidden under the seeming complex of chords, words and melody. After this, there may come the beginnings of a musical backdrop. This may take even more time. It may require different instruments : a mandolin, or a conga drum, a triangle, tambourine or bongoes! Whatever it needs, it will get. The only criterion here is "Let's Do It Right." Of course, there's always the folk problem. Harry is a folk artist, and this provides him with another bucket of work which is: / cannot take this piece, by arrangement or interpretation, out of its idiom and I cannot just sit back and do it like another artist has done it. To find a new, fresher way to do it can mean only one thing: more work! Harry looks ahead always. The re Weil-Known Secret sourceful people in his Belafonte Enterprises organization are always trying to secure more creative conditions for him. I had the pleasure of visiting part of a Belafonte recording session last year. The reason I say part is that it ran, I believe, five days. That's with sleep, of course. It cost, probably, a lot more than most albums, but it was more than just an album. It was a great album. There is an infinity of difference. It's that difference that makes you want to buy, hear or see Belafonte — and not someone else. Harry's tastes musically range from serious music to jazz and folk. His own expression, of course, leans heavily on folk. I believe he sees in folk music a naturalness that our urbanizing direction is fast suffocating. Harry, as you probably have gathered from his recordings, takes his lyrics quite seriously. He instills whatever quality and intensity is required by the words he sings. Folk music generally is the voice of the people who did not write books or symphonies, but used song to air complaints or joy. Harry is honest enough to give fullest consideration to the message, as he is an accepted instrument through which it or they, the countless voices of the past, speak. Well, Harry Belafonte continues to grow in stature. There seems no end to his finely wrought output. I have a sneaking suspicion that it's all wrapped up in that one word: work. It reminds me of what a famous classical composer once answered when asked how he came by his genius. "Ten percent talent, ninety percent sweat." Well, he was being modest, but there is a little more than some truth in his answer. Only through hard work does a man earn the title of a good custodian of his talent. Harry has earned it. Just work. Hard work. That's Harry Belafonte's well-known secret. 13