Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)
Context
Jamaican work song, in call and response, of dockworkers loading bananas at night. Belafonte draws on the versions by Edric Connor (1952) and Louise Bennett (1954), with a text reworked by Lord Burgess and William Attaway. Recorded on October 20, 1955 at Webster Hall in New York for RCA Victor, it was released in 1956 on the album Calypso, reached number 5 on the Billboard charts in 1957 and remains his signature song.
In the genealogy of jazz
This track belongs to Vocal jazz, scat, vocalese. Among the origins and influences of Vocal jazz, scat, vocalese: Classic blues (women singers), Swing, big bands, Bebop (Minton's, Monroe's).