According to various sources, Belasco was born in
Maracaibo (Venezuela), the son of an
Afro-Caribbean mother and a
Sephardic Jewish father. He spent his early childhood in
Port of Spain,
Trinidad and Tobago, and grew up in
Trinidad. He traveled widely in the
Caribbean and South America in his youth, absorbing a wide variety of musical influences. As well as working as a musician performing for the elite, Belasco worked in the function of manager and promoter at London Electric Theater in Port of Spain, Trinidad. He was leading his own band by 1902, and made his first
phonograph recordings in Trinidad in 1914. Belasco played with a band called the Carib Singers and led the band Belasco's Renowned String Band. "L'Année" in turn was actually based on a Martinquean folk song, although Belasco claimed to have written it in the early 1900s. ==References==