The musical story of Harry Belafonte is really a story of 20th-century popular music, and how it draws on influences from multiple places and people, circulating throughout the Caribbean, over to the US and back again. Belafonte was an American of Jamaican descent but he came of age before the development of reggae, so he was influenced by other Caribbean genres popular at the time: Jamaica’s mento – a style of folk music – and calypso, which originates from Trinidad and Tobago.
Even though Belafonte’s most popular album was called Calypso, he wasn’t really a calypsonian, even if some of his most well-known songs drew from that tradition – instead, he was a lover of all music. This genre-jumping approach, combined with his gorgeous voice, is what marks him as a truly great talent.
