Album Reviews

First released in "Living Stereo" way back in 1959, Belafonte at Carnegie Hall continues to captivate listeners, both audiophile and non. The question that needs asking is: Were this not such an astonishing recording, would it still hold interest?.

Listening yet again to yet another vinyl reissue of this 55 year old recording and performance I have to conclude "yes", but the "you are (still) there" recording doesn't hurt!

Stereo was still a novelty in 1959 and other than the limited number of "hi-fi nuts" most mainstream listeners who bought into the new medium did so with systems that featured a big mono-era console augmented with a 'satellite' second channel or a portable type player also with a smaller 'satellite' speaker.

Even on these terribly unbalanced systems, Belafonte at Carnegie Hall made obvious the new medium's potential for transporting listeners to the concert hall. I remember my next door neighbor getting an RCA stereo console back in 1959. It was a blonde wood floor stander with a much smaller secondary speaker.

First my neighbor played for this kid next door a demo record featuring screaming children in an indoor swimming pool. For the first time in my life I experienced from a record a 3 dimensional reverberant space. It was magical! Then the neighbor played Belafonte at Carnegie Hall. Immediately I began lobbying my parents for a stereo to replace our monophonic Columbia "360 Sound" console.

It took about a year. We ended up with a Bogen RP-60 receiver, a Garrard Type A turntable with Shure M3D cartridge and a pair of 12" Jensen Unax speakers stuffed into two, way too small wooden boxes from Cantor the Cabinet King on Cortlandt Street that weren't sealed or vented. There was just a hole cut out directly behind the magnet assembly. There was no bass, but what was there was STEREO.

The first record we bought? Belafonte at Carnegie Hall. Even though I listened almost exclusively to rock'n'roll I made time for Harry and listened to that record over and over so amazing was the sound. So amazing still is the sound but over many years of listening, so is the performance. So is the whole concert.

Belafonte was/is considered anything but "authentic". Among the cognoscenti he's thought of more as an entertainer than as a serious artist but who creates these classifications and these many years later, who cares about such distinctions? Bob Dylan is both a serious artist and an entertainer. Belafonte brought "world" music to the masses, starting with Calypso. His handsome, "clean cut" looks, not to mention his erudition and proper diction made him "acceptable" to a touchy white racist culture (in retrospect even the non-racists were, well, racist in their involuntary condescension).

Today at age 87 he is more politically active than ever and quite outspoken. Back then, after serving in the Navy in World War II, the New York native began club singing to pay for acting lessons.

For his first public performance he was backed by Charlie Parker's combo that included Parker, Max Roach and Miles Davis. Holy shit! He didn't sing "The Banana Boat Song" then but his interest in folk music grew and you know the rest, though did you know that his signature song "Matilda" was recorded in 1953?

By the time these two benefit concerts were performed on April 19th and 20th 1959, Belafonte had amassed a catalog of hits familiar to a wide swath of Americans and he had combined his singing and acting skills to create a masterful stage persona.

The performances and the audience's reaction those two evenings were magical. The magic was locked into the magnetic recording tape and hearing it today, even after hearing it for decades, it remains a singular experience from which many listeners never tire. I am one of those. Even the arrangements that don't hold up well to time like "Cotton Fields", which had been reworked and sanitized to remove every trace of bitterness, remain fascinating as time capsules—especially side 4's nightclub version of "Matilda".

Over the years the reproduction of the original records kept improving and with each improvement the experience drew closer to "being there." Over the years the mastering and pressing quality improved as well. One can argue that originals are the best but not here. No way! Unlike the original pressings mastered from 2 track mix downs from the 3 track original tape, Classic Records' reissue on both 33 1/3 and single-sided 45rpm records and this new mastering are sourced directly from the 3 track tape.

If you already own the Classic version I'm not suggesting you need to buy this yet again. However, while I didn't think there was more to get from the tape than what Bernie Grundman got for Classic Records, I think Ryan K. Smith and the Sterling team have done just that, showcased by the utter black QRP backgrounds.

The transparency, three-dimensionality, tonal and textural purity and especially the riveting image specificity, while always obvious on every version from the beginning, have never been this pronounced—particularly the see-through transparency. Even the cover art graphics have been stepped up a few notches.

The key to sonic perfection is correctly setting the volume. Too loud and it will sound too bright and the reverb behind Belafonte's voice will be obscured. But set correctly, it all locks into place, tonally and spatially.

So yes, had this been a crappy recording, the fascination with it among lovers of great sounding recordings might not be as widespread or intense, but it is among the greatest, if not the greatest live concert recordings ever made and Belafonte's and the orchestra's performances make it well-worth revisiting.