At age 28, prior to her fame as a poet and author, Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Annie Johnson) was performing modern dance and singing calypso tunes in San Francisco nightclubs. Harry Belafonte had just hit the big time and made calypso a household name, and Angelou followed suit in 1956 with a record of her own, her first and only attempt to hit the big time in the music business. By 1959 she had moved to NYC and joined the Harlem Writers Guild and the rest, as they say, is history. That, however, is not to dismiss this record as merely a footnote in her history, it is in fact a fine piece of exotica, a killer LP of pop calypso that should appeal not only to fans of her writing, and lovers of 50s kitsch exotica, but calypso fans in general. Reissued on 180 gram LP with download code.
