GRAMMY® Nominated for Best Historical Album: Paul Robeson Voice of Freedom – The Complete Columbia, RCA, HMV, and Victor Recordings
© Johanna Berghorn/Sony Classical
GRAMMY® Nominated for Best Historical Album
Paul Robeson - Voice of Freedom
The Complete Columbia, RCA, HMV, and Victor Recordings
Out Now via Sony Classical
Robeson's Life and Legacy Featured on NPR Morning Edition in Interview with Shana Redmond
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Review in the Wall Street Journal
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“[T]his comprehensive survey of his recording career stands as a testament not just to Robeson’s incomparable talents and achievements, but also to the substantial hurdles faced by Black Americans generally during his lifetime.” – Wall Street Journal
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Paul Robeson—African-American bass-baritone, stage and film actor, All-American football player, lawyer, and advocate for civil rights—was outspoken against racism, colonialism, and social injustice. Rutgers graduate, scholar of world cultures, and speaker of more than 20 languages, he worked tirelessly to break down political and racial barriers, and to build bridges between the peoples of this world. However, with the advent of the Cold War and the Red Scare following World War II, the political climate changed. Doors began to close for Robeson as concert halls and radio stations shut him out. In July 1950, the US State Department revoked the blacklisted artist’s passport thus preventing him from pursuing his successful international career as a singer and actor. But international audiences continued to honor and call out for him, and he found technologically advanced and effective ways to reach his communities all over the world.
Today, his remarkable voice and unrivaled stage presence live on in sound recordings and films. This 14-CD edition on Sony Classical, is the first ever release of his complete Columbia, HMV and Victor recordings from 1925 to 1947. All of his American recordings have been meticulously restored from the original master discs and tapes, and 25 studio recordings—as well as his complete historic New York and London recitals from 1958—are presented here for the first time on CD. The richly illustrated 160-page book, with essays by Shana L. Redmond and Susan Robeson, pays tribute to a cultural icon of the 20th century.
Blacklisted and erased from American history, many of Robeson’s recordings in the U.S. remained unreleased – until now
Special 14-CD edition, documenting his complete major-label discography, recorded 1925–1947
First release of Robeson’s groundbreaking Victor recordings on CD, 16 recordings reissued for the first time, 5 previously unreleased
First restoration of Robeson’s famous 1944 Othello stage production with Uta Hagen and José Ferrer from the original 33 master disc sides
His complete remastered Columbia albums (Songs of Free Men, Popular Favorites, Spirituals)
First release of his historic 1958 recitals at Mother A.M.E. Zion Church, New York, and Royal Albert Hall, with 30 previously unissued recordings
Richly illustrated 160-page book with essays by Shana L. Redmond and Susan Robeson, a wealth of photos and facsimiles from the archives of The Paul Robeson Trust, the Academy of the Arts, Berlin, and Columbia Records, plus complete discographical notes
Paul Leroy Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass baritone concert artist and stage and film actor who became famous both for his work as singer and actor and for his political activism.
Robeson attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., where he was an All-American football player. Upon graduating from Rutgers at the head of his class, he rejected a career as a professional athlete and instead entered Columbia University. He obtained a law degree in 1923, but, because of the lack of opportunity for blacks in the legal profession, he drifted to the stage, making a London debut in 1922. He joined the Provincetown Players, a New York theatre group that included playwright Eugene O’Neill, and appeared in O’Neill’s play All God’s Chillun Got Wings in 1924. His subsequent appearance in the title role of O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones caused a sensation in New York City (1924) and London (1925). He also starred in the film version of the play (1933).
In addition to his other talents, Robeson had a superb bass-baritone singing voice and studied more than 20 languages. In 1925 he gave his first vocal recital of African American spirituals in Greenwich Village, New York City, and he became world famous as Joe in the musical play Show Boat with his version of “Ol’ Man River.” His characterization of the title role in Othello in London (1930) won high praise, as did the Broadway production (1943), which set an all-time record run for a Shakespearean play on Broadway.
Robeson’s recorded repertoire spanned many styles, including Americana, popular standards, classical music, European folk songs, political songs, poetry and spoken excerpts from plays.
Returning to the United States in 1939, during World War II Robeson supported the American and Allied war efforts. However, his history of supporting civil rights causes and pro-Soviet policies brought scrutiny from the FBI.
In 1949, a concert, organized as a benefit for the Civil Rights Congress, was scheduled to take place on August 27 in Lakeland Acres, just north of Peekskill, New York. Before Robeson arrived, a mob of locals attacked concertgoers with baseball bats and rocks. The local police arrived hours later and did little to intervene. Thirteen people were seriously injured, Robeson was lynched in effigy and a cross seen burning on an adjacent hillside. The concert was then postponed until September 4. Following the concert, request for Klan memberships from the Peekskill area numbered 748 persons.
Paul Robeson moved to Harlem and from 1950 to 1955 published a periodical called Freedom which was critical of United States policies.
In the McCarthy era, Robeson's passport was revoked, his records disappeared from stores, his name was blacklisted, which equated to a ban on performing in the United States. International committees were formed demanding freedom for Robeson to travel, particularly in Britain. In May 1957, members of the British House of Commons organized a "transnational" concert by telephone in London's St. Pancras Town Hall. He was only allowed to leave the U.S.A. again in 1958 as a result of a 1958 United States Supreme Court decision.
In the early 1960s he retired and lived the remaining years of his life privately in Philadelphia.
Robeson became the main mentor to the young Harry Belafonte, who became one of the most popular black entertainment stars of the early 1950s, but also a protagonist of the African American civil rights movement. Belafonte referred to Robeson both artistically and politically.
SET CONTENTS
DISC 1: THE EARLY VICTOR AND RCA RECORDINGS 1925–1940
Spirituals · Ol’ Man River · Ballad for Americans
16 recordings restored for the first time from the original masters, 5 recordings previously unreleased, all others newly remastered
DISCs 2–8: THE HMV RECORDINGS 1928–1939
DISC 9: THE COLUMBIA MASTERWORKS RECORDINGS 1942/1947
Songs of Free Men · Popular · Favorites · Joe Louis Blues
All recordings newly remastered · 1 recording previously unreleased
DISC 10: THE COLUMBIA MASTERWORKS RECORDINGS 1945/1947
Go Down, Moses · Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, and 22 more spirituals
All recordings newly remastered
DISC 11: LIVE IN NEW YORK, JUNE 1, 1958
Spirituals · Arias · Folk Songs · Ode to Joy
First restoration of the historic recital at Mother A.M.E. Zion Church
14 recordings previously unreleased
DISC 12: LIVE IN LONDON, AUGUST 10, 1958
First restoration of Robeson’s return to Royal Albert Hall
16 recordings previously unreleased
DISCs 13/14: SHAKESPEARE: OTHELLO (1944)
Columbia Masterworks’ first album of an entire stage production, restored from the original 33 disc sides