at a glance...

Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
First Recordings: 1991

Members:
D'Angelo -all vocals, keyboards, guitar, percussion
Ahmir Thompson -drums
Charlie Hunter -guitar and bass
Raphael Saadiq -guitar
Clifford Smith (Method Man) and Reggie Noble (Redman) -rappers
Roy Hargrove -trumpet
James Poyser -keyboards

Notes:
Born in Richmond, Va. to a religious family, D’Angelo displayed musical talent beyond his years as a young child. Following a move to NYC, he won Amateur Night at the Apollo three times and was signed to a publishing deal in 1991 following the release of a demo tape of the hip- hip group I.D.U., for which D’Angelo wrote most of the songs. His debut, Brown Sugar, was critically acclaimed and ushered in a new beginning for soul music under the banner of "neo- soul," or those that reflected on the traditions of the R&B community of the '60s and '70s. The widely-regarded artist had a tumultuous few years following Brown Sugar, including pressure from record execs for a sophomore album, rumors of drug abuse and fathering the children of soul artist Angie Stone. He began studio sessions for Voodoo in 1997, and took more than two years to complete it. D’Angelo has also appeared on several soundtracks, including those for "Jason’s Lyric" and "Belly."

Aretha. Stevie. Marvin. Curtis. Although there aren’t many current soul musicians with musical connections to the golden days of soul music, those that do have had to answer to the legacy of those artists, and in doing so have had to deal with some weighty expectations.

Well, D’Angelo chose to let those expectations mount for five years following his archetypal debut, Brown Sugar, but he’s truly outdone himself with Voodoo. The influence of the masters is evident, but this offering is a whole new blueprint unto itself, primarily a product of D’Angelo’s past influences, a hip-hop aesthetic and some heady sonic experimentation.

Voodoo surpasses Brown Sugar, and the rest of the rhythm & blues landscape, through broadened musicality, as brass and percussion arrangements push songs like the swaggering opening track, "Playa Playa," into a whole new realm of R&B music. Chock-full of eccentricities like deeply mixed vocals, backward guitar chords and off-kilter percussion, this record has you off-balance from the beginning. Purposeful blemishes that avoid melodic perfection are a part of D’Angelo’s actual goal here, but every song sounds sublime regardless.

Most of Voodoo is the product of jam sessions D’Angelo held with friends and his musical “soulquarians” like The Roots, Roy Hargrove, Raphael Saadiq, Q-Tip, Pete Rock and Erykah Badu and results in a loose, free-form resonance. But this shouldn’t be mistaken for some half-baked attempt at a collection of funky jams. To the contrary, D’Angelo employs a bevy of backing vocal tracks, all of his own voice in variant octaves - an indication that he intensely focused on the album’s production.

Three songs in the middle of the record, "The Root," "GreatDayNDaMornin’" and "Spanish Joint" single-handedly push Voodoo into a new sphere of musicality, and thus, importance. Guitar virtuoso Charlie Hunter, who employs two bass strings on his guitar to allow himself to effectively play both instruments at once, joins the fray for each of these tracks, as does trumpeter Hargrove, and the result is monumental.

This isn’t an artist opening the history books in search of the secret to making great soul music. D’Angelo is writing his own chapter.

If you like D'Angelo, check out:

Common Like Water For Chocolate
Curtis Mayfield Roots
Erykah Badu Baduizm
Angie Stone Black Diamond
Jill Scott Who Is Jill Scott?
Jurassic 5 Quality Control
Prince Dirty Mind
D'Angelo Brown Sugar

-- Jim Welte

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