Lionel Belasco
Lionel Belasco was a prominent pianist, composer and bandleader, best known for his calypso recordings.Biography
According to various sources, he was born in Maracaibo and others in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. He grew up in Trinidad, the son of an Afro-Caribbean mother and a Sephardic Jewish father. He travelled widely in the Caribbean and South America in his youth, absorbing a wide variety of musical influences. He was leading his own band by 1902. He made his first phonograph recordings in Trinidad in 1914.
