Description
In the mid-1960s, Belafonte was very active in supporting emerging African artists as well as making African music known worldwide, and An Evening with Belafonte and Makeba is an example of this activity. It includes classical African songs such as Malaika (with the English title My Angel) as well as songs in African languages such as Zulu, Sotho and Swahili.
Belafonte was the first African American to win an Emmy, for Tonight with Belafonte (1959). During the 1960s he introduced several artists to American audiences, most notably South African singer Miriam Makeba and the first-ever record appearance by a young harmonica player named Bob Dylan.
The Grammy Award-winning An Evening with Belafonte and Makeba 1965 album by Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba delt with the political plight of Black South Africans under Apartheid. It was the second outcome of the long lasting collaboration between Belafonte and Makeba, the first being the appearance of Makeba in the song “Just One More Dance” on Belafonte’s 1960 album, Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall.
Despite the title, the album is not a collection of live duet performances by Harry Belafonte and Makeba. It is a studio album of 12 tracks, five by Belafonte, five by Makeba, and two duets. The songs are all South African traditional tunes sung in tribal languages such as Xhosa and Zulu.