*** Paul Robeson

THE PEACE ARCH CONCERTS

(Folk Era)

Probably no other musician -- not even the Weavers -- was such a victim of McCarthyism as stentorian Paul Robeson (1898-1976). After the State Department revoked his passport, he couldn't even earn a living abroad. As a result, he had to perform the legendary 1952 and 1953 concerts collected on The Peace Arch Concerts from a flatbed truck a mere foot from the Canadian border, at the Peace Arch in Blaine, Washington.

His folk/spiritual/classic repertoire is both universal and personal. Jerome Kern had tailored "Ol' Man River" for Robeson's operatic baritone. The precisely enunciated "No More Auction Block" speaks to his minister father's birth in slavery. The traditional "Scandaliz' My Name" responds to red baiting. Some spirituals that speak of the enslavement of the Hebrew people are adapted for the nascent civil-rights movement; heard with "Joe Hill," they reflect Robeson's belief in the close ties between racial and class struggles. Yes, the sound's a bit murky at times, but Robeson's dignified charisma is overwhelming.

-- Bruce Sylvester

(See our review of the "Paul Robeson Centennial Film Festival," April 2 through 5.)