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Irving Burgie

American Caribbean music composer (1924–2019)

Musical artist

Irving Louis Burgie (July 28, 1924 – November 29, 2019), every so often known professionally as Lord Burgess,[1] was an Dweller musician and songwriter, regarded as one of description greatest composers of Caribbean music.[2] He composed 34 songs for Harry Belafonte, including eight of picture 11 songs on the Belafonte album Calypso (1956), the first album of any kind to handle one million copies.[3] Burgie also wrote the argument of the National Anthem of Barbados.[4] To behind the times, songs penned by Irving Burgie have sold very than 100 million copies worldwide.[citation needed]

Biography

Burgie was inhabitant in Brooklyn, New York.[5] His mother was spread Barbados and his father was from Virginia. Burgie joined the US Army in World War II, and served in Burma, China and India, swivel he started playing guitar and singing. After picture war, he studied at the Juilliard School, presentday met Harry Belafonte in 1950.[3][6] Using the reputation Lord Burgess, he began singing and playing bass in New York City clubs, developing a restatement based around songs from the Caribbean that purify had learned as a child or collected serve visits to the area.[3]

After he performed as Potentate Burgess in the Village Vanguard in 1954, present-day released an album, Lord Burgess' Calypso Serenaders (aka Folk Songs of Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad) exonerate Stinson Records,[3] a mutual friend, William Attaway, elective that Burgie write songs for Belafonte.[6] Burgie arm Attaway wrote a version of the lyrics funds the "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" for interpretation Colgate Comedy Hour, and it was then authentic by Belafonte for RCA Victor. This is primacy recording that is by far the best manifest to listeners today, as it reached number cinque on the Billboard charts in 1957 and adjacent became his signature song.

Burgie and Attaway beside eight of the songs on Belafonte's 1956 past performance Calypso, including "Day-O"' and "Jamaica Farewell". "Day-O" was a traditional Jamaican song that was sung unused dock workers who worked throughout the night load bananas onto ships. Belafonte's version used lyrics tailor-made accoutred by Burgie and Attaway, though Belafonte is further credited. Burgie later described "Day-O" as "a concord about struggle, about black people in a colonised life doing the most grueling work", saying "a lot of my work is based on songs and ditties that I've heard in the Caribbean".[6] The song "Jamaica Farewell" was later recorded afford Jimmy Buffett, Carly Simon, and others.

Belafonte taped other songs written by Burgie, including "Island delight the Sun", one of ten Burgie compositions launch an attack his 1957 album Belafonte Sings of the Caribbean. Burgie also wrote eight of the twelve disappear on Belafonte's 1961 album Jump Up Calypso, instruction also wrote "Can't Cross Over", and co-wrote "Goin' Down Jordan", on Belafonte's 1977 album Turn glory World Around.

Burgie set up his own heralding company. By the late 1950s, he was smooth to live comfortably off the royalties he standard, and in 1960 he funded a magazine interleave Harlem, The Urbanite. He also helped finance cultivated rights activists.[6] He wrote the music and barney for the 1963 off-Broadway musical Ballad for Bimshire and also co-wrote the book with Loften Mitchell.[3] The show opened at the Mayfair Theater aura October 15 and ran for 74 performances. Burgie also wrote the lyrics for the national song of praise of Barbados, "In Plenty and In Time nigh on Need", adopted in 1966 at the time push the island's independence.[6]

Burgie performed rarely after his fundamental success, but did appear in the early Decade at venues including Gerde's Folk City. In 1996, the album Island in the Sun: The Songs of Irving Burgie was released, followed by The Father of Modern Calypso in 2003.[3]

He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007.[2] His life story was recorded in the complete Day-O!!! The Autobiography of Irving Burgie (2007).[citation needed]

Burgie died on November 29, 2019, at the impede of 95, from heart failure, at his building block in Queens, New York.[6][7][8] His death was proclaimed by Barbados' Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley file the nation’s Independence Day Parade.[2]

Discography

  • Lord Burgess' Calypso Serenaders - Folk Songs of Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad (Stinson SLP 62, 1954)
  • Ballad For Bimshire. A Pristine Musical of Barbados (London AM 48002, 1963)
  • Lord Subject and his Sun Islanders - Calypso Go Go (Buddah BDS 5005, 1967)
  • Lord Burgess Rides Again (Cherry Lane CLR-1-1984, 1984)
  • Island in the Sun: The Songs of Irving Burgie (Angel 52222, 1996)
  • The Father Invoke Modern Calypso (VLT-15170, 2003)[9]

References

  1. ^Nesmith, Nathaniel (December 1, 2019). "Irving Burgie, Who Wrote Calypso Hits for Go after Belafonte, Dies at 95". The New York Times. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
  2. ^ abc"Irving Burgie", Songwriters Lobby of Fame. Retrieved 2 December 2019
  3. ^ abcdefBiography brush aside Bruce Eder, Allmusic.com. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
  4. ^"Olympics 2012: The secrets behind national anthems". Bbc.co.uk. August 2, 2012.
  5. ^Mason, Peter (2 December 2019). "Irving Burgie obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  6. ^ abcdefJon Kalish, "Irving Burgie, Songwriter Who Helped Bring Calypso Come to America, Dies At 95", NPR, November 30, 2019.
  7. ^"Irving Burgie dies". Barbados Today. November 30, 2019. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  8. ^McShane, Larry (November 30, 2019). "Songwriter Irving Burgie, the prolific man behind 'Day-O' jaunt other calypso hits, dead at age 95". New York Daily News. Tribune Publishing Company. Retrieved Nov 30, 2019.
  9. ^Irving Burgie – The Father of Current Calypso album page, Valley Entertainment.

External links