By Dan Aquilante. New
York Post. Wednesday, March 28,2001
HEY, Mister Tallyman, tally me a good show! At Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher
Hall Monday, handsome pop great Harry Belafonte was sucked into the vortex of
schlock by a large backup band and its cruise-ship calypso arrangements.
Despite the handicap, Belafonte - who just turned 74 - showed he was in full
possession of his distinctively clear signature vocal style.
That essential goodness eluded Belafonte's musical director, who often had
the band indulge in mediocre solos that elicited yawns and even upstaged the
star.
This concert, which benefited the cause of normalization of relations with
Cuba, was met with zero protests, although NYPD officers were stationed at all
entrances.
Actor Danny Glover, a friend and admirer of Belafonte, offered a smart,
succinct introduction of his pal as both a performer and humanitarian. Belafonte
took off his entertainer's cap more than once to extol Cuba's international good
deeds and blast a 40-year-old trade embargo imposed by the Unites States. "We
want to celebrate the Cuban culture, especially the music of Cuba, with this
concert," Belafonte said prior to the show.
But there wasn't any Cuban music, or any Cuban musicians in the band or
songs sung in Spanish, and none of the show's three guest performers hailed from
the island. So much for the cultural celebration.
While this wasn't one of the stellar evenings of music - Cuban or otherwise
- there were some very pretty moments.
The best of those was when Belafonte rendered the standard "Try to
Remember" from the classic musical, "The Fantasticks."
The song, which reminisces about things past and growing old, was delivered
with the kind of authority that age gives the singer. It was the evening's most
moving piece - raising goose bumps and tingling spines.
By the crowd's ecstatic reaction, it seemed most of the fans at the concert
were there just to hear "Jamaica Farewell" and - you guessed it -
Belafonte's 1957 hit "Banana Boat (Day-O)."
In a lighter moment, Harry told a story from his childhood in Harlem when
his mother advised him to sing only songs he loved. "You never know, it
might become a hit and you'll have to sing it forever," she told him. One
thing you can say for Harry - he listened to his mama.
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