One of my favourite albums of all times, Voodoo (Wikipedia). I remember going to the record store in January of the year 2000, when it was just released. I only listened for about 30 seconds in total in the store and I knew I had to buy it and rush home to listen to it.
It didn't leave my cd player until the summer. It really shook me up. Or maybe I was just in a post-adolescent phase where everything was heavy - probably.... but I was obsessed with this album.
To me, it's transcendent music. Sounds and arrangements which go further than just notes. It sounds mysterious and magic. Sometimes minimalistic, always organic, as if everything was played effortlessly and super laidback... To many women he was sex symbol only, and maybe it was the only way to market him properly and get the music out. At the same time it distracted from his musical geniality and artistry but it created a much bigger audience with all the female attention than if it was marketed as a funk/jazz album. In the end, the music won, and I am happy for him that he's awarded with many Grammys and still continuing to create great music, even if it takes a while... Many rhythm sections were brought up with this particular album, trying to play live what D'Angelo and his band had done on this album. Shifting the beats, playing with the "time". Generations of singers have been influenced by his singing and songs, I know a few who are still stuck on D'Angelo only.. and it's hard not to. And I am always getting mad of the teacher-kind-of -persons who talk about D'Angelo's poor lyrics. First of all, he's a musician and producer, not a lyric writer. He needs lyrics to communicate the music to the majority of people who only react to music if it has vocals and lyrics in it.. To me, Voodoo is about the rhythm, chords, feel, sounds... and there are lyrics as well..
So the first time we played the music from Royalty For Real wasn't in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, but in Bengaluru and Mumbai, all the way in India in 2023!Here you'll see me play Au Privave, Classy Cats and Royalty For Real, together with Timothy Banchet (piano), Marius Beets (bass) and Sven Rozier (drums).Au Privave is a well-known blues by Charlie Parker which I often like to start with, almost like a soundcheck tune. Although most of the time a soundcheck is done I found out it's a good idea to play a tune everybody of the band knows very well so we all can get used to the sound of the stage, the presence of the audience and it also gives the sound engineer the chance to adjust microphones last minute. During the soundcheck, the sound of the room is significantly different because of the lack of audience. All that flesh and clothes work a little bit like a totally empty room versus a room with furniture and carpets, if you know what I mean :-)Acoustics are so interesting and full of surprises.. Anyways.. hope you like it! - One of my favourite albums of all times, Voodoo (Wikipedia). I remember going to the record store in January of the year 2000, when it was just released. I only listened for about 30 seconds in total in the store and I knew I had to buy it and rush home to listen to it. It didn't leave my cd player until the summer. It really shook me up. Or maybe I was just in a post-adolescent phase where everything was heavy - probably.... but I was obsessed with this album.To me, it's transcendent music. Sounds and arrangements which go further than just notes. It sounds mysterious and magic. Sometimes minimalistic, always organic, as if everything was played effortlessly and super laidback...To many women he was sex symbol only, and maybe it was the only way to market him properly and get the music out. At the same time it distracted from his musical geniality and artistry but it created a much bigger audience with all the female attention than if it was marketed as a funk/jazz album.In the end, the music won, and I am happy for him that he's awarded with many Grammys and still continuing to create great music, even if it takes a while... Many rhythm sections were brought up with this particular album, trying to play live what D'Angelo and his band had done on this album. Shifting the beats, playing with the time. Generations of singers have been influenced by his singing and songs, I know a few who are still stuck on D'Angelo only.. and it's hard not to. And I am always getting mad of the teacher-kind-of -persons who talk about D'Angelo's poor lyrics. First of all, he's a musician and producer, not a lyric writer. He needs lyrics to communicate the music to the majority of people who only react to music if it has vocals and lyrics in it.. To me, Voodoo is about the rhythm, chords, feel, sounds... and there are lyrics as well..
