View source for Lionel Belasco

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'''Lionel Belasco''' ([[Maracaibo]] (Venezuela) 20 September 1881 &ndash; {{circa|24 June 1967}}) also known as Lionel "Lanky" Belasco was a pianist, arranger, composer, promoter and bandleader from Trinidad and Tobago.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=alton |date=2015-04-29 |title=The Legendary Lionel Belasco: A Calypso Founding Father |url=https://tropicalfete.com/the-legendary-lionel-belasco-a-calypso-founding-father/ |access-date=2025-06-12 |website=Tropicalfete inc. Caribean Culture Steel pan Mas stilts music |language=en-US}}</ref> Belasco was a pianist, composer and bandleader best known for his [[calypso music|Calypso]] recordings.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Jazz |first=All About |title=Lionel Belasco Musician - All About Jazz |url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/lionel-belasco/ |access-date=2025-06-12 |website=All About Jazz Musicians |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schaeffer |first=Nancy |title=Bolivia: Music of the Calcha. Le Chant du Monde Rosalia Martinez |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/1519666 |journal=Yearbook for Traditional Music |volume=33 |pages=197 |via=JSTOR}}</ref>

==Biography==
According to various sources, Belasco was born in [[Maracaibo]] (Venezuela), the son of an [[Afro-Caribbean]] mother and a [[Spanish and Portuguese Jews|Sephardic Jewish]] father. He spent his early childhood in [[Port of Spain]], [[Trinidad and Tobago]], and grew up in [[Trinidad]]. He traveled widely in the [[Caribbean]] and South America in his youth, absorbing a wide variety of musical influences. As well as working as a musician performing for the elite, Belasco worked in the function of manager and promoter at ''London Electric Theater'' in Port of Spain, Trinidad.<ref>{{Cite web |last=alton |date=2015-04-29 |title=The Legendary Lionel Belasco: A Calypso Founding Father |url=https://tropicalfete.com/the-legendary-lionel-belasco-a-calypso-founding-father/ |access-date=2025-06-12 |website=Tropicalfete inc. Caribean Culture Steel pan Mas stilts music |language=en-US}}</ref> The ''London Electric Theater'' was the first movie theatre in the capital city of Trinidad.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Astor Cinema in Port of Spain, TT - Cinema Treasures |url=https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/55889 |access-date=2025-06-12 |website=cinematreasures.org}}</ref> He was leading his own band by 1902, and made his first [[phonograph]] recordings in Trinidad in 1914.<ref>Richie Unterberger, [http://www.allmusic.com/artist/lionel-belasco-mn0000293367/biography "Artist Biography"] at AllMusic.</ref> 

Belasco played with a band called the ''Carib Singers'' and led the band ''Belasco’s Renowned String Band''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=van Dam |first=Theodore |title=The Influence of the West African Songs of Derision in the New World. |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/30249401 |journal=African Music |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=53–56 |via=JSTOR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=alton |date=2015-04-29 |title=The Legendary Lionel Belasco: A Calypso Founding Father |url=https://tropicalfete.com/the-legendary-lionel-belasco-a-calypso-founding-father/ |access-date=2025-06-12 |website=Tropicalfete inc. Caribean Culture Steel pan Mas stilts music |language=en-US}}</ref> Recorded songs include a folk Calypso tune titled, "''Wash-Pan-Wash''", which was identified under the genre "Paseo".  Belasco recorded the Spanish Waltz "''Lucille" around 1935.''<ref name=":0" />

Belasco claimed that'' "[[Rum and Coca Cola]],"'' a big hit in the 40s, was based on a calypso called ''"L'Année Passée"'' that he had published in a song folio in 1943.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=CURTIS |first=Wayne |title=Rum and Coca-Cola: The Murky Derivations of a Sweet Drink and a Sassy World War II Song. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30249401 |journal=The American Scholar |publication-date=2006 |volume=75 |issue=3 |pages=64-70 |via=JSTOR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Historian |first=Gerard A. Besson-Caribbean |date=2011-10-18 |title=The Caribbean History Archives: Calypso, Calypso Music |url=https://caribbeanhistoryarchives.blogspot.com/2011/10/calypso-calypso-music.html |access-date=2025-06-12 |website=The Caribbean History Archives}}</ref> "''L'Année''" in turn was actually based on a Martinquean folk song, although Belasco claimed to have written it in the early 1900s.

== See also ==
*[[Calypso music|Calypso]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/107678 Lionel Belasco recordings] at the [[Discography of American Historical Recordings]].
* https://web.archive.org/web/20110616102802/http://www.nalis.gov.tt/Biography/bio_Lionel_Belasco1.html

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Belasco, Lionel}}
[[Category:1881 births]]
[[Category:1967 deaths]]
[[Category:American bandleaders]]
[[Category:20th-century American Sephardic Jews]]
[[Category:American people of Trinidad and Tobago descent]]
[[Category:American people of Venezuelan-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American calypsonians]]
[[Category:Trinidad and Tobago calypsonians]]
[[Category:People from Maracaibo]]
[[Category:Musicians from Port of Spain]]
[[Category:20th-century Trinidad and Tobago male singers]]
[[Category:20th-century Trinidad and Tobago singers]]
[[Category:Venezuelan Jews]]


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[[Category:Afro-Caribbean music]]
[[Category:Afro-Caribbean culture]]
[[Category:Pianists]]
[[Category:Pianist stubs]]
[[Category:Caribbean artists]]