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''Miss Calypso'' is a 1957 album by writer and poet Maya Angelou. The album was released during a craze for calypso music catalyzed by Harry Belafonte the previous year. Angelou sings every song on the album, and she composed five of them. Behind Angelou's voice, studio guitarist Tommy Tedesco and percussionist Al Bello created an exotic mood. Angelou toured in support of the album, performing calypso songs in nightclubs. The album was a modest success but Angelou did not make any further records as a singer. Angelou later gained fame as an author and a poet, most notably her first autobiography, ''I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings''. In her fourth autobiography, ''The Heart of a Woman'', she downplays her singing career and assigns little importance to ''Miss Calypso''. In 1995, the album was re-released as a CD during a period of customer interest in 1950s exotica. Its artistry was re-examined in light of Angelou's later fame; it was said to exemplify the calypso music of the period, spiced with a feeling for the tradition's roots. ==Background== Maya Angelou had modest success as a singer, dancer, and performer beginning in 1954, when her marriage to her first husband, Tosh Angelos, ended. She performed in clubs around San Francisco, including the Purple Onion, where she sang and danced calypso music.〔 Up to that point she went by her birth name Marguerite Johnson, or by the name Rita, but at the strong suggestion of her managers and supporters, she changed her professional name to "Maya Angelou", a "distinctive name" that set her apart and captured the feel of her calypso dance performances.〔 During 1954 and 1955 Angelou toured 22 countries, mostly in Europe, with a production of the opera ''Porgy and Bess'', which she describes in her third autobiography, ''Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas'' (1976). By February 1956 she was touring with her own new show, an exotic calypso act which played at the Keyboard in Beverly Hills, where she was "wooed by disk executives", according to ''Billboard''.〔(February 15, 1956) ''Variety''〕〔(February 16, 1956) ''Variety''〕 She headlined at the Village Vanguard in March, gigged for four weeks at the Clouds in Honolulu in July–August, and joined the Lester Horton dancers for a Halloween show at the Palladium.〔(March 21, 1956) ''Variety''〕〔(July 18, 1956) ''Variety''〕〔(October 12, 1956) ''Variety''〕 Angelou signed with Liberty Records in September. By November 1956, ''Variety'' was describing the process of recording her first album, ''Miss Calypso'', and even speculating that her second album might be a collection of Noël Coward songs, based on her playful ad-libbing of a Coward tune between takes at the recording studio.〔(November 28, 1956) ''Variety''〕 In 1957 Angelou appeared in an off-Broadway revue that inspired her first film, ''Calypso Heat Wave'', in which Angelou sang and performed her own compositions.〔 Also in 1957, the album ''Miss Calypso'' was completed and released; it was reissued as a CD in 1995.〔〔 According to reviewer Hilton Als, Angelou sang and performed calypso because she "had followed the fashion of the time", and not to develop as an artist. Als states about ''Miss Calypso'': "But it was clear that the album itself was not the point. Developing her artistry was not the point. Fame, not art, was her spur..."〔 In 1958, Angelou met blues singer Billie Holiday, who after walking out during one of Angelou's calypso performances, told her, "You're going to be famous. But it won't be for singing".〔 As she described in her fourth autobiography ''The Heart of a Woman'', Angelou eventually gave up performing for a writing career, and became a poet and writer. According to Chuck Foster, who wrote the liner notes in the album's 1995 reissue, her calypso music career is "given short shrift" and dismissed in the book.〔〔See Angelou, p. 55.〕 Her first autobiography, ''I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'' (1969), brought her international recognition and acclaim.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Miss Calypso」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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