The considerable charms and originality of this still-running 1996 hit show, conceived by choreographer Savion Glover and director George C. Wolfe, were largely visual: Glover's engaging lead performance, Wolfe's inventive staging, Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer's exquisite lighting, and, above all, the highly successful use of tap-dancing, of all things, to create characters and tell a story. In this show, the music, by Daryl Waters, Zane Mark, and Ann Duquesnay (who also did the arrangements and won a Tony as Best Featured Actress in this musical) is perfectly fine, but it mostly serves the dancing, as well it should. None of this makes for a very compelling recording, however. Two drummers banging pans attached to the other's or their own bodies is kind of cute when you see it in the theatre, for example, but on a record it's just two people banging pans. A couple of the show's songs do manage to cut through the need for tap-dancing accompaniment, especially Duquesnay's interpretation of "The Lynching Blues." But otherwise this rappish CD is strictly a souvenir of the show or for tap-dancing practice. --Robert Windeler