Search - Harry Belafonte :: Returns to Carnegie Hall [MFSL Audiophile Original Master Recording]

Slightly different than the original...

01/28/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First off, let me just say I LOVE this album. My father had the original vinyl double album and I listened to it all the time. I am a professional entertainer myself now and this album was certainly among my early influences...and my dad still has the double LP. But this is also why I knocked a star off the review. The CD is not the same as the original album!!! For example, on the original LP Belafonte does not introduce Hene Ma Tov...he just starts singing it. Also the La Bamba track on the CD is obviously a completely different performance altogether! There is an extra verse and some vocalizing missing that Belafonte did on the original. Picky stuff I suppose, but since I searched for several years to find this CD and was thrilled that it was finally released, it was a slight dissapointment to not get the exact album I remembered from my childhood. I still LOVE the album...I just wish it hadn't been altered."

Song Power II!

The Sanity Inspector | USA | 03/28/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Like another reviewer, I too used to pull this out of my parents' lp collection and play it. Belafonte's energy, strong voice, and diverse material made a lasting impact. It's great to see it available on cd. The sound is crisp and vivid, and doesn't break up in loud climaxes like the lp's sound did.I didn't much care for Odetta's material-sounds like a bad combination of 1920s blues and 1950s coffeehouse poetry--though I do like her fun duet with Belafonte on "There's a Hole in the Bucket". That song got our family through many a long road trip when I was young. South African Miriam Makeba sings an interesting Xhosa (IINM) song. Belafonte's backup singers make some great harmonies in their featured numbers, especially "The Ox Drivers". And Belafonte himself is just sparkling-the folks back then didn't know how good they had it! He sings a sweet Scottish (English?) ballad, "I Know Where I'm Going". "Old King Cole", a military novelty song, is another tune that passed the time on long vacation trips. And his _con brio_ delivery of the Israeli song "Hene Ma Tov" is stirring. The only disappointment is the final song, an uproarious version of "La Bamba". Another performance of the song has been substituted for the one originally on the lp. The original version is so frenetic that Belafonte is practically gasping his lines. On this version the vocals are still very good, but not as exciting. Don't worry, though-if you've never heard the lp, you'll be content with this."

Sharing the stage with Odetta, Makeba, Chad Mitchell Trio.

Mary Whipple | New England | 08/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Recorded almost exactly a year after his sensational Carnegie Hall debut in 1959, Belafonte presents a totally different type of concert in this return, with a new set of numbers. Here he is more a producer than soloist, bringing with him other artists to whom he cedes the stage but with whom he often shares songs. The first four songs are Belafonte's, backed by his Belafonte Folk Singers, from the very uptempo "Jump Down Spin Around," with which he gets the concert off to a rousing start, through the slow, sad "Suzanne" and two jokey novelty songs, "A Little Lyric of Great Importance" and "Chickens." The Chad Mitchell Trio shines with an Israeli song, one of Belafonte's own calypso songs, and a novelty song about Sigmund Freud.



The great "First Lady of Folk," Odetta leaves the audience spellbound with her performance, first with "I've Been Driving on Bald Mountain," combined with "Water Boy," into which she pours her soul, using her full power before the song slows and becomes sweeter and far more melodic. She and Belafonte then sing the humorous "There's a Hole in the Bucket," a memorable duet for which this is the only recording. Miriam Makeba introduces the "Click Song," which later became her signature song, followed by a novelty duet with Belafonte, "One More Dance."



The Belafonte Singers are responsible for three of the most rhythmic numbers--American traditional songs and Gospel--and their harmonies are the best on the album. Belafonte's last four numbers are an Israeli folk song (one of many he has recorded and in which he excels), a traditional British folk song, and an American marching song, before his eight-minute version of "La Bamba," from Mexico, which he is introducing for the first time.



With far more novelty/humorous numbers than in his previous Carnegie Hall performance, Belafonte is clearly appealing to a broader audience than the serious folkies who made that concert a sellout. This show is more spectacular, with each guest performing some of his/her most unusual and memorable numbers. Belafonte is terrific for the eight songs he performs (plus his duets with Odetta and Makeba), but this is less a Belafonte "concert" than a Belafonte "production." n Mary

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