The Belafonte Folk Singers (originally known as The Belafonte Singers) were a vocal group who were active from 1957 to 1965. They were named after singer

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an interna ...

, for whom they originally formed in order to serve as a backing group for recording and concerts. The group was mostly led and conducted by

Robert De Cormier Robert Romeo De Cormier Jr. (January 7, 1922 – November 7, 2017), sometimes known as Robert Corman, was an American musical conductor, arranger, and director. He arranged music for many singers and groups, including Harry Belafonte and Peter, P ...

, also billed as Bob Corman.

Milt Okun Milton Theodore Okun (December 23, 1923 – November 15, 2016) was an American arranger, record producer, conductor, singer and founder of Cherry Lane Music Publishing Company, Inc. Okun transformed the careers of a dozen or more major U.S. a ...

sometimes conducted the group as well. The Belafonte Folk Singers usually consisted of 11-12 singers and musicians at one time, all male. Its members were mostly

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, although the group did included some

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

members. The group had a high turnover, and around 40 singers were a part of the group at one time or another during its eight-year existence.

Garrett Morris Garrett Isaac Morris (born February 1, 1937) is an American actor, comedian and singer. He was part of the original cast of the sketch comedy program ''Saturday Night Live'', appearing from 1975 to 1980, and played Jimmy on ''The Jeffersons'' ...

performed with the group early in his career. The group released three of their own albums for RCA Victor, and sang backup on five albums by Harry Belafonte and

Miriam Makeba Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she w ...

. Alumni of The Belafonte Folk Singers went on to form the De Cormier Singers, The Phoenix Singers and the Seafarers Chorus.

Members

Members of The Belafonte Folk Singers included Earl Baker, Kenneth Bates, Harry Bessinger, Laurence Bogue, Ray Boguslav, Charles Coleman, Tim Conn, Joseph Crawford, Leslie Dorsey, James Eby, Jack Eddleman, Ken Emery, Cortez Franklin, Andrew Frierson, Scott Gibson, Joli Gonsalves, George Goodman, Milton Grayson, Bob Harter, Tom Head, Robert Henson, James Herald, Noah Hopkins,

, John Nielsen,

, Richard Pindle, Walter Raim, Earl Rogers, Glenn Rowen, Charles H. Scott Jr., Sherman Sneed, Arman Stephanian, Billy Stewart, Millard Thomas, Roy Thompson, Paul Westbrook, John Wheeler, Arthur Williams and Ned Wright.

Awards

The Belafonte Folk Singers won the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording at the

4th Annual Grammy Awards The 4th Annual Grammy Awards were held on May 29, 1962, at Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1961. Henry Mancini won 5 awards. Award winners *Record of the Year **Henry Mancini for "Moo ...

for their 1961 album ''Belafonte Folk Singers at Home and Abroad''. Two other albums on which they appeared won the same award: the 1960 Harry Belafonte album '' Swing Dat Hammer'' and the 1965 album '' An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba''.

Discography

* ''Presenting The Belafonte Singers'', 1958 (as "The Belafonte Singers") * ''Cheers: Drinking Songs Around the World'', 1959 * ''...At Home and Abroad'', 1961

With Harry Belafonte

* '' My Lord What a Mornin''', 1960 * '' Swing Dat Hammer'', 1960 * ''

Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall ''Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall'' is a live double album by Harry Belafonte. It is the second of two Belafonte Carnegie Hall albums, and was recorded May 2, 1960. It peaked at #3 on the Billboard Pop albums charts. Belafonte shares the stage ...

'', 1960

With Miriam Makeba

* ''

'', 1960 * '' The World of Miriam Makeba'', 1963

With Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba

* '' An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba'', 1965 American folk musical groups Musical groups established in 1957 1957 establishments in the United States {{US-folk-band-stub