35 Songs: “Day-O”, “Mama Look a Boo Boo”. Photos: Ramada Inn, Washington DC Hilton, and My Apartment Studio

The piano player for Gladys Night and the Pips (photo left) appeared sitting at the piano bar four nights in a row just watching me play all night long while I played on the grand piano at the downstairs DC Hilton Rob Roy bar. I wish that he would have played for me, but he didn’t want to. When he asked what kind of music I liked the best, I explained that I got to go to Puerto Rico on a family vacation when I was growing up, and ever since then, especially on my guitar gigs, I like the best to play Harry Belafonte and calypso music. In the nineteen eighties, and purely by chance, I ran into Harry Belafonte’s congo player named Jack Costanza (see 2 photos) . He was nice enough to come over to my apt in Solana Bch with his drums to record some tracks for me in order for me to use for some of my of calypso songs, recorded while he played on his congas. I play Harry Belafonte’s calypso songs on all my gigs. Besides having Mr. Costanza’s actual congas on my tracks, I also have a another drummer playing real drums on many of the other songs that I play on any/all gigs, which makes it a lot better sounding than the various drum units which I had previously incorporated during my years playing solo.

Everybody like Harry Belafonte’s rhythmic calypso sounds. To me, his music is the best.