Product Review

An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Friends contains the full broadcast of a 1997 PBS special, an exciting program that introduced the consummate performer to a new generation of admirers. The legendary actor-activist-recording artist offers fresh evidence of his acclaimed talent for capturing and re-appraising the pure character of folk music through elegant pop forms. Belafonte's classic material from his bestselling years in the 1950s and early '60s is represented here with a vivacious "Matilda" (complete with audience participation), a handsome reading of the immensely popular "Jamaica Farewell," and a snazzy, gospel-flavored "The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)."

The big draw, however, is Belafonte himself, his charismatic blend of raw, masculine joy, spiritual gravity, intellectual force, and measured dignity--all quite visible in his delivery on such mythic material as "We Are the Wave," the nostalgic "Try to Remember," and the unsettling, if gorgeously provocative, "Dangerous Times." --Tom Keogh