“I thought it was a lark and kind of an interesting play idea,” mused Belafonte, “but then it began to sink in.” After Belafonte admitted that he had no musical repertoire and couldn’t play an instrument, Kay deadpanned, “We have to really start from ground zero.” He reached out to Royal Roost promoter and booking agent Monte Kay, who was intrigued by the premise. Young believed that Belafonte would be the perfect set-up man to fill in during intermission. Many of the jazz artists there had seen him perform in a stage adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel Of Mice and Men, a role that required him to sing. It was then suggested to Belafonte that he should try his hand at being a vocalist. Not much was around.” Related Story Harry Belafonte embodied mid-century Black uplift Read now
And one day I had expressed my great difficulty in finding work as a Black actor. “And night after night, looking at these artists, I just fell madly in love with everything about them. “For a 25-cent bottle of beer, you could hang out at the bar and watch until the wee hours of the morning a parade of the greatest forces of modern jazz music,” Belafonte recalled in a 2011 interview with radio host Kojo Nnamdi. He was a regular at the Royal Roost and had become friends with many of the musicians who frequently played there, including influential jazz tenor saxophonist Lester Young. Back in 1949, Belafonte was just a 22-year-old struggling actor trying to keep it together. and became one of the civil rights movement’s most consequential supporters and activists, before he used his celebrity status to help push for the end of apartheid in South Africa. This was before Belafonte became one of the first Black actors to achieve headlining status in Hollywood before he joined the exclusive EGOT club (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony winner), before he befriended Martin Luther King Jr. Yet he was being pitched to perform at arguably New York’s hottest jazz club, the Royal Roost in Midtown. It was early 1949, and Belafonte had never sung professionally in his life. Indeed, at first the whole idea seemed almost laughable. Harry Belafonte, the music, stage, film, and television star and civil rights giant who passed away April 25 at the age of 96, originally had no intention of becoming a singing star.
0 kommentar(er)
