Paul Robeson & Earl Robinson - Das andere Amerika (1959) (24/96 Vinyl Rip Mono)

Paul Robeson was one of the leading American black artists and social activists of his time, Earl Robinson was a central player in the early recognition and development of American folk music. These recordings were made in East-Berlin in 1959 at the Studio Taubenstraße during their European concert tour.

Tracks
Paul Robeson:
01. Water boy 02:40
02. Hassidic chant 02:40
03. There is a balm in Gilead 02:14
04. Oh, my baby, my curly headed baby 02:35
05. Sometimes I feel lilke a motherless child 02:47
06. Passing by 01:50
07. The echo of our youth 02:42
08. Kevin Barry 02:12
09. Deep river 02:05
10. Swing low, sweet chariot 02:09

Earl Robinson:
11. Casey Jones 02:19
12. The house I live in 03:25
13. Joe Hill 02:39
14. Free and equal blues 05:22
15. Black and white 03:33
16. Spring song 02:38
17. Good morning 03:39
18. The quilting bee 03:01
Total time: 50:22

Musicians
Paul Robeson: vocals
Earl Robinson: vocals, piano, guitar

These recordings were made in East-Berlin in 1959 at the Studio Taubenstraße during their European concert tour.

Paul Robeson's biography by Robert Cummings from Allmusic:
Paul Robeson was one of the leading American black artists and social activists of his time. Though he was accomplished in many areas including acting and athletics, he was primarily a singer and had a penchant for taking up controversial stands on an array of political and civil rights issues. He became an outcast in his homeland by the late 1940s, but near the end of the twentieth century, over 20 years after his death, his artistry drew new appreciation and his reputation has been somewhat rehabilitated.
Paul Robeson's parents were Rev. William Drew Robeson and his wife Maria Louisa Robeson. The youngest of five children, Paul had a difficult childhood: when he was three, his father was driven out as pastor of the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church and became a common laborer for several years to support his family; his mother, a school teacher, was burned to death in a freak accident three years later.
The family moved to Westfield, NJ, when he was nine, and Paul was enrolled in an integrated school. At the age of 17 Robeson entered Rutgers University under a four-year scholarship. There he broke records in baseball, track, and football, winning 15 letters and being named an All-American in the latter sport, as well as becoming class valedictorian. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1923. By this time he had married Eslanda Cordoza Goode and had long divulged superior talents in both singing and acting.
After confronting racism and prejudice in the law profession, Robeson turned to acting in 1924, playing the lead in Eugene O'Neill's play All God's Chillun Got Wings in New York. He sang in his first concert in Boston that same year, receiving many kudos for his rich baritone voice and deep interpretive sense. In the mid-'20s he began focusing more on his vocal talents, giving concerts throughout the U.S., singing mainly so-called Negro spirituals. 1928 London theater audiences saw his first performance of "Ol' Man River" in a production of Show Boat. By 1930 he had appeared in London, Vienna, Prague, and elsewhere in Europe singing both Negro spirituals and gypsy folk songs. He starred in his first talkie film, The Emperor Jones, in 1933.
In 1935, Robeson traveled to the Soviet Union, finding its socialist way of life much to his liking. He even pondered emigrating there. He became increasingly controversial in the late 1930s, returning to the Soviet Union, as well as traveling to Spain to support the anti-Franco forces. Robeson also continued giving concerts throughout Europe and elsewhere during this time.
Throughout the 1940s Robeson's leftist tendencies grew, and he eventually came under suspicion by the FBI for being a member of the Communist Party. In 1949, 85 of Robeson's scheduled concerts were canceled by booking agents fearful to be associated with the controversial artist. In 1950, he was banned from American television, and by then even prominent black leaders, such as Roy Wilkins and Walter White, considered him an outcast. Moreover, once-eager record labels and other entertainment industries now blacklisted him.
In 1958 an apparent third attempt on his life was made when his car went out of control, the result of someone tampering with the wheel assembly. Robeson's last concert tour was of New Zealand and Australia in 1960. He made trips to the Soviet Union that same year, and on a visit there in 1961, Robeson suffered a collapse and was hospitalized in Moscow and again in London. He was later diagnosed with Paget's disease and spent the remainder of his life in poor health.

Earl Robinson's biography by Ronnie D. Lankford Jr. from Allmusic:
Earl Hawley Robinson was a central player in the early recognition and development of American folk music. He was born on July 2, 1910 in Seattle, Washington. From an early age his mother made sure that he, along with his two siblings, received a serious musical education. Between the three children, they played piano, guitar, flute, viola, violin, saxophone, and clarinet. By the age of six, Robinson was improvising on the piano, so it was little surprise that he decided to major in music when he enrolled in the University of Seattle in 1928. After graduation in 1933, he traveled to China and worked his way back to the United States by hiring himself as a pianist on an ocean liner. In 1934, he arrived in New York City, eager to involve himself in left-wing activity including the Young Communist League and the Workers Laboratory Theater (later known as the Theater of Action). During the summer of 1936 he worked as the musical director at Camp Unity, and it was there he composed "Joe Hill." While continuing his activity at summer camps, he also began composing for the Federal Theater Project in the late 1930s, and led the People's Chorus at the International Workers Order. Robinson reached an early career peak in 1939 when he wrote "Ballad for Americans" with John Latouche for the end of the play, Sing for Your Supper. When the Works Progress Administration (a federal government program) shut down, CBS rescued "Ballad for Americans" for its Pursuit of Happiness radio program in the latter part of 1939. In the epic song, the singer paints a mythical portrait of the American people throughout history. Performed by actor-singer Paul Robeson, the program was a smashing success, leading to a recording of the song backed by Robinson's American Peoples Chorus. Surprisingly, even the conservative Readers Digest praised it as worthy propaganda. The success of "Ballad for Americans" also helped Robinson receive a Guggenheim fellowship to create a musical version of Carl Sandburg's The People, Yes. His skill as a writer also impressed Eleanor Roosevelt, who invited the signer to perform at her political functions. During the 1940s, Robinson moved to Hollywood where he wrote for television, films, theater, and radio. He wrote songs for Romance of Rosie Ridge and California, and composed a musical score for the documentary The Roosevelt Story. In the 1950s, he composed a folk opera, Sandhog, and scored the music for the General Motors film, Giants in the Land. Robinson worked as the musical director at the Elisabeth Irwin High School from 1957 to 1966 in New York City, and conducted the Extension Chorus at the University of California from 1967 to 1969. After 1969, he composed the music for a number of television shows including The Great Man's Whiskers and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Robinson returned to his home in Seattle in 1989 where he continued to compose abstract compositions until his death from an automobile accident in 1991.