D'Angelo Revisited

From: Steve Catanzaro (stevencatanzaro@sprintmail.com)
Date: Thu Apr 20 2000 - 04:02:32 MET DST

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    3 things happened to me in the last 5 days;

    1. I took a long trip with a homegirl who looooooves d'angelo. So, I had to listen to Voodoo extensively.

    2. I got the new SNC, which reviewed Voodoo and said in part...
    "At first I didn't get it... but then 1 night, a major shift in perceptions/prejudice took place."

    3. I saw D'Angelo on that VH1 Anti-diva concert...

    All 3 add up to this....

    Man, this cat is straight out a musical GENIUS.

    As to Voodoo. It has to be listened to like "Kind of Blue;" That is to say, MODAL. No, it doesn't compare to "Innvervisions" songwise but that's because it's a different kind of writing. You just sit there and listen to it, and you realize after a while that it's perfect, every little sound, the incredible vocal harmonies (just about every song's got as much going on vocally, but in a much more soulful way, as Queen's overdub classic "Bohemian Rhapsody"), the playing of Ahmir ("my man sports the 'fro like what's happening") Thompson, it's all good.

    When I first listened to it, I thought, man, greats like Charlie Hunter, Roy Hargrove, and they don't play hardly nothing! But now I think it's the raw minimalism that makes it so great. Just EXACTLY like Kind of Blue. Those aren't songs, on that classic, they're more like moods. And that's how this D'Angelo is starting to hit me.

    So, if you kind a liked it but were a little disappointed the first time you heard it, maybe give it another chance. When the switch goes on, it's like having dark rich brown chocolate pumped into your soul through your ears!

    By the way, his performance on VH1? Can't believe it's the same guy who used to sit at his keyboard and mumble through Brown Sugar. He quite literally made everyone there, with the possible exception of Tom Jones, sound like they needed voice lessons. Oh MAN is his band tight, too. They did "Sex Machine" almost as good as JB's band, and I ain't no modern cats do like that. They can play soft, or they can rock it. Poor Enrique...

    "whisperin to management backstage change the order ain't no way that we can rock after dem."



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