Miss Calypso

About Miss Calypso

Miss Calypso is the debut and only studio album by American writer and poet Maya Angelou, released in 1957. 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 more »