CARIB SONG 9/27/45

This is an interesting listen. It's not really a 'cast album' as there are no original cast members singing (and to think Eartha Kitt was in the ensemble too!!). Like so many other composer/studio driven projects of it's era, this is a recording with songs sung in the studio by the writers. On CD, this 'album' is included on the Cabin in the Sky recording. The music is meant to be 'islander' despite being written by non-islanders (and it sounds like it). Its one thing to write an operatic theater piece about a culture (Porgy), but it is another thing entirely to write popular music in the style of a cultural group. Just because you sing 'der' instead 'there' does not mean that you are suddenly listening to authentic Caribbean music. I will say Harold Arlen comes closest in style with House of Flowers (wait until the 50's...). I'd be curious to hear these songs sung appropriately to race and sex, but I don't think it would make much a difference. Just so-so all the way around. Perhaps I'm being a bit too contemporary in my listening, but the songs just aren't theatrically interesting enough to do anything for me (with perhaps the exception of the final song, Go Down To The River) GRADE C