Making His Voice Heard

At 73 and celebrating 52 years in show business, singer-actor-humanitarian Harry Belafonte can look back on a life and career filled with milestones:

* A 1954 Tony Award for his Broadway debut in the musical “John Murray Anderson’s Almanac.”

* The first album to ever sell more than 1 million copies, his 1956 “Calypso.”

* The first Emmy Award presented to an African American performer, for his TV special “Tonight With Belafonte” in 1959.

* A 1987 appointment as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, which made him only the second American to hold the title, after Danny Kaye.

* The Martin Luther King Peace Prize, the Kennedy Center Honors for excellence in the performing arts and a string of other honors.

But, quick, think of Harry Belafonte and what immediately comes to mind?

Was it “The Banana Boat Song,” the hit tune from his “Calypso” album? The song, which is also known by its subtitle, “Day-O,” is the one he’s undoubtedly best remembered for.

“No question,” Belafonte said. “That and ‘Matilda.’ ”

“Matilda” may have been another hit for the Harlem-born, Jamaica-reared entertainer, but none of his recordings has been as enduringly popular as “The Banana Boat Song.”

And guess what Belafonte will sing at his show Saturday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa? Belafonte wouldn’t think of doing a concert without it.

“Wouldn’t want to,” he said from Manhattan, where he lives. “I enjoy doing it very much and audiences enjoy it more than I do because they sing along with me--and they do it with gusto.”

Explaining the longevity of “The Banana Boat Song,” Belafonte said, “First of all, it was the big hit of the day and like all songs that became popular in its time, it had a lingering place.”

Indeed, over the years he’s performed it with the Muppets on television. It showed up memorably in the 1988 movie “Beetlejuice.” Concert audiences from Japan to Europe have joined Belafonte in singing it. And along the way it simply became what he calls “an established part of American folk culture.”

“Now it’s the anthem for all the New York teams,” he said. “If you go to any game played at Yankee Stadium, you’ll hear the audience sing ‘Day-O’ because it’s their rallying cry. The same thing with the Jets and the Knicks.”

Belafonte, who studied acting on the GI Bill in the ‘40s after a stint in the Navy, got his start as an intermission singer at the famed New York jazz club the Royal Roost, where his backup band consisted of no less than Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Max Roach and Tommy Potter.

As an entertainer, Belafonte hasn’t slowed down since.

He’s lately been in the studio recording a new album, “Another Night in the Free World,” a collection of songs from the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa. It’s due out in six months on the Island Palm label.

Belafonte also does about 120 concert dates a year and, as has been his habit since 1956, he continues to entertain around the world. He still gets a kick out of performing.

“Trust me, if I didn’t, I’d have long since stopped,” he said. “It not only keeps me very energized, but I love the theater, I love the work, and as long as audiences will still find me viable and interesting and I fill the halls, they make me very relevant. What’s very rewarding is the number of young people that come to the theaters now. I’m working with three generations of people.”

As for his career longevity, Belafonte said, “I guess I got lucky. I came at a time when [entertainers] were not quite as disposable as we are today. I’ve developed some antibodies that keep me alive.”

Belafonte acknowledges that his trademark raspy voice has “become deeper and huskier,” but “the deepness just has to do with the years. As a kid, I had a whispery huskiness to my voice. It’s my voice print. I always say you only have four to choose from: Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker and me--the Four Musketeers.”

Belafonte changes his shows every couple of years.

“I do a lot of the classics people expect--’The Banana Boat Song,’ ‘Try to Remember,’ ‘Jamaica Farewell,’ songs like that. But I also bring a lot of new songs from countries I’ve visited and new melodies and ideas from songwriters or some songs I’ve attempted to write myself.”

Belafonte, who says he spends a lot of his time working with Nelson Mandela and other world leaders on issues “dealing with the Third World and with human development globally,” has always tapped into the world’s repertoire of songs.

His reason for doing that is “the more people can hear the cultures of others, the more they’re prone to appreciate what those cultures have to offer. I think the music culture of the world is very critical to people’s understanding of each other.”

Asked to sum up a Harry Belafonte concert, the singer said:

“The audience gets a chance to dig in and hear things that it’s delighted by--things that give them a chance to reflect seriously on their rewards, their hopes or aspirations. They hear about the plight of other people, the humor of other people. It’s an all-around evening of song that takes them to many levels of emotional experience.”

SHOW TIME

Harry Belafonte, Segerstrom Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Saturday, 8 p.m. $45, $60, $65. (714) 556-2122.