Two evenings become a landmark concert album
On 19 and 20 April 1959, Harry Belafonte appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York. The concerts benefited the New Lincoln School and the Wiltwyck School. Those evenings became Belafonte at Carnegie Hall, released by RCA as a double album in October 1959. The record remained on the charts for more than three years and received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Behind that remarkable success is a programme presenting Belafonte as singer, storyteller and the centre of a shared concert experience.
His name was already widely known. Calypso had brought exceptional popular success in 1956, but the Carnegie Hall recordings reveal a broader horizon than a single stylistic label might suggest. American songs, Caribbean repertoire and material from other traditions appear alongside one another. The performer and the programme’s organisation provide the connection. A concert album can preserve those relationships differently from a collection of studio hits: it documents a sequence designed for a particular room and an audience present at the event.
The benefit character of the performances belongs to their historical identity. It connects Belafonte’s artistic work with the social engagement that helped define his career. The recording can still be approached first as a musical event. There is no need to treat every line as a political statement to take its setting seriously. The coexistence of entertainment, songs with varied histories and public commitment is part of what makes Belafonte such an interesting figure.
The voice, the accompanists and the work behind the concert
The documented musicians include guitarists Millard Thomas and Raphael Boguslav, Danny Barrajanos on bongos and conga, and Norman Keenan on bass. Bob Corman directed the musical forces. These are concert personnel credits; a secure track-by-track allocation of every accompanist is not available. What matters for the album is that Belafonte’s voice is supported by a deliberately shaped musical setting. Its participants have names of their own and deserve to remain visible alongside the celebrated singer.
Guitars, bass and percussion are among the colours of that setting, with an orchestral contribution under Corman’s direction. Such a framework can connect different types of song while allowing changes in scale within the programme. One useful listening approach is to follow the distribution of attention between singer, accompaniment and audience. A live album is more than a studio record with applause added: the listeners’ presence belongs to the circumstances in which the performances take shape.
Bob Bollard produced the original release and Bob Simpson engineered it. Lee Friedlander supplied the cover photograph, while John Gundelfinger created the interior illustration. These credits show how carefully a concert document was also conceived as a physical object. Recording, selection, sequence and packaging turned two evenings into an album that could circulate independently of the events themselves. The two concert dates provide the established frame; individual selections are not assigned here to one evening without supporting evidence.
A journey through the repertoire
The original programme was divided into three thematic sections. The first carried the historical heading “Moods of the American Negro”, followed by “In the Caribbean” and “Around the World”. The first title belongs to the language of the period’s release. Together, the headings describe the programme’s broad movement without reducing the different histories of its songs to a single origin or meaning.
The first two sides of this 45 RPM edition move from the introduction and “Darlin’ Cora” through “Sylvie” and “Cotton Fields” to “John Henry” and “Take My Mother Home”. The second LP presents “The Marching Saints”, “Day O” and “Jamaica Farewell”, followed by “Man Piaba” and “All My Trials”. This sequence already brings narrative songs together with numbers closely associated with Belafonte’s public image. Familiarity can provide an accessible entrance, while the album encourages attention to the songs’ relationships inside a planned concert.
The third LP contains “Mama Look a Boo Boo”, “Come Back Liza” and “Man Smart (Woman Smarter)”, then “Hava Nagila”, “Danny Boy” and “Merci Bon Dieu”. The fourth moves through “Cucurrucucú Paloma” and “Shenandoah” to “Matilda”. “Matilda” is particularly associated with Belafonte’s engagement of his listeners and their participation. The publisher’s account highlights this communal aspect. It helps explain why the album is collected as a record of a concert situation as well as a record of a singer.
The fifth LP adds three selections previously unavailable on vinyl: “Harry Belafonte Spoken Intro”, “Scarlet Ribbons” and “Overture Medley”. The last of these is instrumental. Their placement on an additional record should not be mistaken for evidence that an overture historically took place at the end of the concert. It is the arrangement of supplementary material in this edition. For collectors, that distinction keeps the original programme and the extension identifiable rather than silently combining them into a supposedly uninterrupted chronology.
The breadth of material is one reason to stay with the full sequence. A listener may arrive for “Day O”, “Jamaica Farewell” or “Matilda”, then find that the quieter narrative songs or less familiar titles reshape the experience. The album format supplies the context in which those encounters can happen. Belafonte’s name provides continuity, but the repertoire keeps changing the questions asked of him as a performer.
Analogue Productions’ substantial 45 RPM box
The product offered here is AAPF 6006-45, a five-LP stereo box running at 45 RPM. Ryan K. Smith cut the edition at Sterling Sound from the original analogue three-track tapes. Gary Salstrom is credited with plating, and Chad Kassem with supervising the reissue. The publisher lists Quality Record Pressings and RTI as the pressing plants. Attributing the entire edition exclusively to one of them would omit part of the published specification.
The current description specifies 180-gram records. The documented 2018 edition is listed as a 200-gram box. These are different release specifications, not proof of the weight of every box supplied today. An individual stock batch remains unconfirmed without inspecting the copy. The established features here are five LPs, 45 RPM playback, stereo and the expanded content. The separately available 33⅓ RPM edition is another product and should not be confused with this box.
Ten record sides mean more interruptions than the original double album. This practical consequence belongs to the choice of format. The box offers the programme and additional material in an extensive vinyl presentation, and listeners should allow for its side changes. A universal claim that every system or listener must prefer 45 RPM is unnecessary: the actual production credits and contents already provide useful grounds for understanding the edition.
Belafonte at Carnegie Hall can serve several purposes in a collection: a concert classic, an encounter with Belafonte’s wide-ranging repertoire and a specifically documented recording project. The famous songs provide an entrance; the programme, the accompanists and the audience make the experience larger. You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and dispatch from Hilden.
Also in another edition: Belafonte At Carnegie Hall
More by Harry Belafonte: Belafonte Sings The Blues
Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe
Musicians
Participants and documented credit status. Track references correspond to the tracklist.
- Harry BelafontePortrait 1963vocalsParticipation: Concert personnel; individual tracks not assigned
- Millard ThomasguitarParticipation: Concert personnel; individual tracks not assigned
- Raphael BoguslavguitarParticipation: Concert personnel; individual tracks not assigned
- Danny Barrajanosbongos, congaParticipation: Concert personnel; individual tracks not assigned
- Norman Keenandouble bassParticipation: Concert personnel; individual tracks not assigned
- Bob Cormanorchestral conductingParticipation: Concert personnel; individual tracks not assigned
- OrchestraorchestraParticipation: Concert personnel; individual tracks not assigned
19/20 April 1959, Carnegie Hall, New York. Bob Bollard, producer; Bob Simpson, engineer; Bob Corman, musical direction. Personnel credits refer to the concert, not necessarily every track. LP5: Spoken Intro, Scarlet Ribbons, Overture Medley (instrumental); supplementary material, not a claim about historical concert order.
Philipp –
Noch nie habe ich diese Aufnahme so schön und intensiv gehört. Es kam mir so vor als ob ich dabei gewesen wäre. Diese Veröffentlichung ist eine große Freude für jeden Vinyl- Hörer.