You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - The Genius of D'Angelo's Voodoo

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

We’re finally digging into “Voodoo” - D’Angelo’s Grammy-winning album that changed the sound of R&B, soul, and hip-hop forever. And the album a young Adam Maness had on repeat, seriously influencing his playing as well as countless musicians since.With Questlove’s “Dilla-drag” drumming, Pino Palladino’s funky bass lines, Roy Hargrove’s jazzy horn arrangements, and Charlie Hunter’s chicken-picking guitar, Voodoo is packed with the kind of cross-genre musicality that makes jazz musicians lose their minds.Twenty-five years later, Voodoo still grooves harder, hits deeper, and sounds more human than many albums of its generation.In this episode, you’ll hear:What makes D’Angelo’s groove so unique (and hard to imitate)Isolated tracks, rare demos, and interviews with the artistsHow “Spanish Joint” came together in a single takeWhether “Feel Like Makin’ Love” tops the Roberta Flack originalAnd whether “Voodoo” is even an R&B album at allABOUT OPEN STUDIO------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------As the premier online jazz education platform, with an ever-expanding course library and 20,000+ members, Open Studio (OS) has everything you need to excel and thrive on your jazz journey.Featuring everything from beginner to advanced lessons, engaging courses from A-list instructors, step-by-step curriculum, real-time classes and a thriving and incredibly supportive community, OS is the perfect platform to level up your jazz playing, whether you’re a total beginner, or an advanced pro-level improvisor.

Hey, what's up, Adam? What's up, Peter? Man, it was great. My sister came in time. And mine was crazy. I did this gig down in Branson in the Ozarks with Ron. Okay. He says a low, by the way.

Oh, yeah. It was a duo gig, just the two of us, but it was actually a trio gig. Well, how is that possible? Well, I was playing accordion. Kind of weird for me, but, you know, in Branson. I bet it was killing. Yeah, and Ron was on bass guitar and Glockenspiel. Oh, wow.

So it was kind of a trio thing. He was doing both. That's crazy. Actually, that reminds me, you know, what we're doing today. What's that? Oh, yeah. Okay. I'm Adam Mammis. And I'm Peter Barton.

And you're listening to me on your podcast. Music Explore. Explore, brought today by Open Studio. Go to Open StudioJadjazz.com for out of your jazz lesson needs. And Peter, you can go to our brand new bespoke. Did you say brand new? Brand new bespoke. Open Studio Music, YouTube channel.

We're posting performances from not just some of our performances from the intros and outtos here on the show, but also some originals that you and I are writing based on the shorts and the YouTube videos we make. It's exciting, man. We're not actually posting performances. We're actually, dare I say, posting dope performances, or at least some of them. Wow, really go out on a limb there. Dare you may. No, there's a couple of them that I actually have been enjoying listening to.

A little bit of a soundtrack of my current life, which I don't usually do with stuff that I'm a part of. So that's been fun. There's some nice stuff. We're having a great time over there. So go check that out. That's open studio music on YouTube. That's right. Dot com.

Good. Dot org? Is it YouTube.org? No. Peter, big day. Yes, this is a big day. Very big day. And I know we always say that.

These are big albums. No, I think there's been a couple times we didn't say anything. I know now people are going to be like, oh, how come you didn't say it for that album? I know. But this is a big album. Yeah, this is a big album. We're going to take you back to a time that I think even young Adam Manis might remember. It's 25 years ago.

No, this is 100% in my sort of top 10 most influential albums of my life. And I think a lot of folks of my generation, of your generation, anybody who is sort of like aware around the year 2000s. Yeah, older millennials to younger Gen Xers, I could say. And beyond. If you were into music, you couldn't miss DeAngelo's Voodoo album. Yes. It was just an incredible huge hit album commercially, but also artistically.

Yes. And it really has influenced the whole generation of players. Even if you don't know, you've been, you might be super young listening to this. You have been influenced by this album via the players that you listen to very long. Are really young people now?

Do they look at this record like what's going on? I always wonder about that. Like when we were coming up, we think about like a classic record. Like we've done talking book, what's going on? And that was like 25 years, you know, produced before I probably was really,

oh, no, no, I was hearing it like 15 years after it was made. Well, maybe this conversation we can have towards the end about, like, how has this album aged. Yeah. You know what I mean? Because now we are 25 years out from it and how is it received now? Yeah. And it was like a really anticipated record

because he doesn't make a lot of albums. DeAngel's made four records. Let's go ahead and put that out there now. Like 30 years. Yeah, in more than 30 years. But you know, he's like this record because Brown Sugar, which came out like, was that like 94, 95, something like that. Amazing album. Yeah.

Was a huge hit record. And then, but this is a little bit kind of a different record. within the music world, and I think within the general public, the music aware public, it was kind of known that he was working on a record and that it was not coming out and that it was going to come out and it didn't come out. So it was definitely anticipated in a way that I think doesn't quite exist anymore because albums are still a thing, but like people are dropping singles. They're dropping, you know, disc tracks at midnight, you know. That's true. A lot of pop artists are kind of constantly releasing singles. Yeah. Leading up to an album and in between.

even like right after an album that'll release a single that's like this might be on the next one we'll see how it goes but this was like we heard from DeAngelo in 94 like he said in Brown Sugar and then we don't hear from him again really

until this drops in 2000 I think is this when this came out in 2000 February 2000 but they were working on it like you know 96 97 I mean 97 98 99 I guess mainly 98 99 he did have a great record they came out which is Live of the Jazz Cafe

but a lot of people don't know about this record it came out everywhere but it was especially big in Japan. I remember I picked that up. That came out like 98. And it was recorded with his touring band. And it's like a lot of the brown sugar material and a couple of covers as well.

It's killing. Incredible record. It's killing. So that was a little bit of a bridge between those things. I remember getting the CD in Japan that had bonus tracks that they used to do. Great versions of that. So this was officially actually his third record.

But for most people, this was kind of like his second record. It's a pretty hipster run you just went on there. This is a record most people don't know about. But it's really big in Japan. No, no, no, when I tell people, I was like, was it only released, I had to look it out. It was released everywhere. Incredible record, actually, live at the London Jazz Cafe. So let's talk a little bit more about DiAngelo himself, the man himself.

So born in 1974, Virginia. Richmond, Virginia, VA. His father was a Pentecostal minister. Came up in the church, played a lot of gospel music, played the organ, played the piano, sang, played the drums. And it's all over his music. his music. And then interestingly, his mother was described as a jazz aficionado, if not a jazz musician, but a listener very much into the church too, but loved Miles Davis and a bunch of the classic records and exposed her son to that. So he had that kind of magical

upbringing of, you know, kind of almost like that Trinity of like soul music, you know, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gay, really steeped in that. And then, of course, Prince, Michael Jackson, in that whole tradition, but also gospel. He talks about the Hawkins family, like those recordings, once he heard that just changed his whole thing, a lot of musical references and all of his recordings to that. Jazz, you know, he was very jazz aware. Roy Hargrove, who we're going to talk about a lot,

who was a huge influence on this record, a huge presence on many of the tracks on this, somebody that DiAngelo, even before he got to New York, had been listening to and sort of tracking. Roy was a couple years older than him. So, pretty much, interesting influences. Every jazz musician that I was friends with at this time, I had just moved to New York when this came out. And all of my musical friends there were obsessed with this album.

This is definitely like catnip for jazz musicians. Yes. It's got Roy on it, of course. But more than that, it's just there's a feeling of it that you can hear he's steeped in several different genres of music that. A lot of minor nines. We love minor nines. Yeah. I mean, I felt a...

I felt a connection from brown sugar. Yeah. Just like immediately. Like I, this feels very familiar. Yeah. And I mean, I remember Brown Sugar, like that was before that record even came out. I remember Mark Whitfield who played on a couple tracks on there. Friend of the show.

Friend of the show. Dear friend of mine for many years. Larry Grenadier was playing some on that. It was a bunch of jazz, like, little influences on that record. But that, you know, Brown Sugar maybe was seen, even by DeAngelo himself as more of like a R&B type of record. And I'm going to put it out there now. My first thing on this. I think this is not an R&B record.

Okay, we're going to get into this and listen. I think this is a straight up soul record, whatever that means. You're going to have to define some genres here and then give us some reasons. You can't just throw this out there without anything to back it up. Well, brown sugar is definitely more. I know that they were talking about Neo Soul and that whole thing, which is like a very sloppy term in a way. But it was definitely, you know, a trend. But I think that this record is just, it's almost a reaction to, you know,

to sort of that 90s R&B sound, which, you know, really started in the late 80s. You got a problem with Jodacy? What's up? Jodacy, SWV, TLC, a lot of acronyms, a lot of initials, boys to men, and really like Whitney Houston, even a lot of

kind of pop crossover. Can we just have a 90s R&B episode now that you're saying all these names? No, I love all that stuff. But this kind of sound, okay, yes, it's at the end of the decade. But it's very much a 90s record, actually. It came out in February of 2000, but all this stuff was made in the 90s and all this recording. I mean like baby face, Janet Jackson, you know, Terry Lewis,

Jimmy Jam, like that all sound, which was like a lot of stuff I listened to when I was young. This was something different. And I think there was definitely an appetite for it. Obviously, it's very connected with, you know, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gay, George Clinton, cool in the gang. Yeah. With like Prince and Michael Jackson is a lot of a connector. A lot of Prince. We're going to get into that. But it's got some great personalities on here. Why don't we listen first? to the first track. Is that a good way to get into it? It definitely is.

Playa, playa. So you already know this is a different kind of record, right? High hat. Yeah, from the first cross stick. Yeah. It sounds different. Yeah. The dry-ass cross stick.

Amirah Thompson, of course, Questlove, commonly known as drums, production, input all over this record. So this almost choir-like layering of De Angel's voice, you're going to hear throughout the record some of the genius I think that really connects the musicality of this album very talking bookish

yes Roy is a Pino Palladino Pino on bass syncopation of course the laid back the offset how does this groove feel to you I mean for me it feels pretty awesome

it feels awesome it's still startling how behind the beat some of those vocals Right. Layback. Yeah, and we're going to talk about it. I have actually Amir talking about this sum about how that came about.

Obviously, the Jay Dill influence is huge on this record, although he's not listed anywhere on the liner notes or anything, famously. But with that interpretation, Dexter Gordon-ish. Yeah, but if you think about, like, if Pino is right there at the beat, and then Questlove is maybe just, he's a little bit behind, and then DiAngelo is much by.

behind it, you know. Sometimes, sometimes floating way behind, sometimes on it. That guitar, the guitar is Dino Campbell. But I think Pino and Amir's hookup on this is, I mean,

can you understand one word that, No, okay. Can't understand anything. But, you know, to me, one of the striking things is, is from the opening track.

I think all of the hallmarks of voodoo are here. Yes. What we're going to hear for the rest, which is there's such a distinct sound between Pino, Paladino and Questlove, right? The sound of the drums and the sound of the bass. I can't actually think of, I mean, it is the sound of voodoo.

Yes, that's right. And it's one of the more distinctive drum and bass hookups, I think, in music history. Yes, yeah. It's fantastic. You play that sound and you're like, that's voodoo. Exactly. And it was so influential on so many people,

I mean, when this came out, even though, again, like, if we look at maybe Jay Dill the great Detroit producer drum on the MPC you know just force of nature he really kind of conceptualized this

and had demonstrated this and had produced this sound already so it was very much picking up on that but I think they were doing it in a way on this record that was like a lot of these are like just live takes going through and then the vocals would get layered and the horns would get layered

but everything else was played live very like organic in the studio you've talked about the cross stick you know the Questlove is doing there's almost no snare drum on I mean actual like snare drum on this record it's so much cross stick in fact when the snare comes I think it's kind of stumbling I mean your cross stick sounds that great

yeah it makes a lot of sense but for those you that are like what the hell are you guys talking about behind the beat it just sounds like it's grooving it absolutely sounds like it is grooving it's a great fear but this is Questlove Amir talking about a little bit about this drag time you know by the time that DeAngel and I started the voodoo record,

which was like mid-96, that was the hardest thing ever because he constantly like he wanted me to drag the beat, but then he dragged the beat behind me. And so now I've got to program my mind to think, okay, this is the metronome.

And now he wants me to play, which is you know, I started having issues. Like, well, what if other drummers, like, the musician community is going to laugh at me. And he's like, no, man, trust me, like, use the force. That's, he's,

he's, he's, all these Star Wars analogies with me. Like, use the force, man. And I'd never seen Star Wars, so. Yeah. So, that's kind of, you know, where that came from. There was definitely some tension. This took several years, like, to go through this. Um, and then I think Pino Paladino was really

sort of the connector because he would bridge that, like, between the actual time and that drag time. He was kind of right in there, wouldn't you say? Yeah. You know, was really like locked in with the bass room. But then there was a lot of, we're going to hear like, especially on chicken grease, where there's almost like a contrapuntal thing, rhythmically happening between like the bass drum, certainly the cross stick, the guitar riffs, and what Pino is playing on there that's really, really interesting and creates a very unique kind of

syncopation. Yeah, it's so funny because I feel like it's only been maybe in the last 10 years that we started to, in at least popular black American music, started to weave out of sort of the Dilla beat style that you hear a lot of young musicians playing, and we can, especially in the last maybe five years, get a really glimpse of it now from slightly ahead of it, I guess behind it, where we are in history. But now you can look back at it.

And this album is definitely one of the like, oh, this can be very, very popular. Yes. This sort of like the drag time beat. And then it would take over. a lot of styles of music from here on out for like 10, 15 years. Yeah, and the thing is,

it's not on every track on here so acutely. You know, it kind of comes and goes that I think it's very, I think it's been exaggerated that like, oh, everybody's always playing by, I'm like, if everybody's playing behind the beat, then they're all playing together. There's almost like this looseness to it, like that's part of the feel of like how it doesn't fit into the grid.

And I think that a lot of this was either conscious or unconscious reaction to that very, what R&B music and pop and hip hop and hip hop. Everything was tight to the grid, digital. This whole record was recorded analog, like to tape at a time when, like, Pro Tools was always... It's a comment back on the computers that had taken over and the drum machines that had taken over.

And it's so funny because it all comes out of Jay Dilla, who's using the machine in this way. But it's, if you want proof of the sort of ubiquitousness of this beat, next time you're on a gig with any millennial drummer, just shout Dilla Beat. And watch what happens because they can all do it. And they can all This weird look They can change their posture They can all do it

Yeah, yeah And I mean I think too Like there's It's interesting you say By the Dilla being on the On the machine Questlove He sounds

There's parts of this That he's playing so specific And like no fills or anything In exactly this some way That it sounds like it's looped I think there might have been Some looping on this But I always thought this record

Had a bunch of loops But hearing them talk about it They're like no They recorded everything live Together in the room So I mean I'm not surprised at all.

He's the drummer for the roots. Right, exactly. That's what he does. No, he's incredible. And obviously, there's no click track or anything. But the grid is there, but it's like, they're dancing all around it. Okay, so once, so basically, I think DeAngel coming out of Brown Sugar was really, for his next record, wanted to do, he had a sound in mind. And he really wanted to, like, do his own music and do stuff in a way and also just create in the studio.

So him and Quest Love were already connected and some other folks. And actually Charlie Hunter, we're going to get to Charlie Hunter, a huge influence. We love Charlie Hunter. It already recorded some stuff with them where he was playing bass and guitar. But around that time, there was a Beebe King record. And this was kind of one of these records. This was when BB was kind of having one of his big revivals. And then a bunch of different guests and DiAngelo was going to be guesting on one track.

and Pino Pelladino, basist from, where are you from if you're Welsh? Wales. There you go. I was trying, I was like, he's from Welsh. No, he is Welsh. He's from Wales. Legendary basis.

It wasn't like super well known, but I mean, he was like a session cat and played with some huge tracks and stuff. I don't know that he'd done a lot of this kind of stuff that people were aware of. But he was on this BB King session. And apparently when DeAngelo got there and before BB King came in, he kind of went over to the piano was playing like some

Marvin Gay stuff or whatever, and Pino started playing with him and DeAngel was like, and then he was asking like, wait, who was that? I like that kind of sound. He went into some of his James Chambers and stuff. Well, let's hear Pino talk about it actually. But, you know, there was an immediate connection as soon as we literally, second verse of that song, where Dee took the lead. He was playing, I think he was playing piano and took the lead. And he took the lead and I'm playing, I'm like, Damn, he sounds so good. And it kind of informed me, you know, like all of a sudden I was like, man, I can do, yeah. And I just went for some shit, you know.

Hearing his voice inspired me to try some Jamison style, you know, walking around a little bit more, playing some busy, busy bass stuff. And I felt him react to that immediately. Someone happened on that tune, but that was Beebe King too. Wow. You know, Bibi made that happen. So here's the track. This is going into the second verse with DeAngelo.

I beg you to come home and said to let me alone. You're going to start to go down. It's actually great to hear DeAngelo on such a straight-ahead track like this. It's really awesome. To hear him on, first of all, I'm such a sucker for those slickly produced artist, legend at the end of their career, making an album with a bunch of young upstarts. I dig in every time. I like it so much.

But to hear DeAngelo with like a slickly produced session musician heavy, it's very fun. Yeah. It's very fun. It's great, great. So that was 97. I came out in 97. I think they recorded 972. So that's where Pino and DeAngelo first connected and then DeAngel invited him in to the session.

And so they had already recorded, you know, a couple of tunes with Charlie Hunter. And maybe we'll wait to get to that. Or do we want to jump in that already. Let's jump in. Let's jump in already. I like it. Look at that. Let's do it. Come on. Yeah. And so probably the most famous, I think he did three tracks on here. And Charlie Hunter, if you're not aware of him, check him out.

He's amazing jazz and beyond guitarist. But he was playing an eight string. I think he plays a seven string now. I've seen him play a seven string. But he was playing eight string then, which was like, basically it's a bass and a guitar. And he's playing with his thumb, the bass parts. And the, he's doing two jobs. It's especially made guitar. You're getting two musicians for the price of one with it. And he's by far one of the greatest in the world.

world at that. Yeah. Truly, like a special, special person. Yeah. And so how DeAngelo became aware of

Charlie Hunter apparently was he was watching, this is of course like pre-internet days or at least, yeah, I guess pre-internet, very much internet. There used to be a cable station.

Do you know what cable is? You remember cable, right? I do. Okay. A cable station called Bet on Jazz. There was BET, Yeah, of course.

Which was huge at the time. Yeah, yeah. Talking about 90s R&B. Yeah, yeah. And so they had started this jazz station, Bet on Jazz. And they did.

didn't have a lot of content. But it was a 24-hour... You had to be 24 hours because it was cable television, right? Not enough jazz? Right. Exactly. Well, because they would only use stuff that was, like, recorded in their studios in D.C. I actually played on a...

I put in a mirror... I did a thing with Mark Whitfield, quartet. But if you went into the studio and did stuff for them, they would play at old people, but like, oh, I saw you on bed on jazz. I saw you again. Oh, I saw you. And like, so many people would see it because they would just loop the stuff all night long. So Charlie Hunter had done something with his band,

and DiAngelo heard him late at night watching in the hotel room and was like, oh man, who is that? And so then he went out and got all his records like, listen, and apparently this is how DiAngelo does it. When he gets to, he did the same thing with Roy Harger. When he hears something he likes, he just becomes like encyclopedic knowledge of it

and it's like absorbs the whole thing. Because Charlie Hunter said when he got into the studio with him, it was like, he knew all his stuff and it's like, man, can you do this? And I heard you do it on this. He's like, I don't know. He's like, no, no, you played it in the fourth bar of that thing on your record.

No, it doesn't surprise. me that the guy that takes eight years, ten years to make an album that's super detailed with his research and everything. Right. So, first, I'm going to play you the demo that this has been passed around a lot, so I don't think I'm out of turn by playing this year. This is all over the internet, I believe. But this is DeAngelo actually at the piano with the demo for Spanish joint. It's interesting to hear how, because it ended up, it was actually co-written, they said, by DeAngelo and Roy Hargrove. So Roy definitely had some stuff that he put on. And I know we're going to hear Charlie Harder put something on it.

But here's DiAngelo, the demo. Okay, I can go play this joint I wrote called Spanish joint. It's a new voodua album. Joint I wrote called Spanish joint. I've heard this before. Minor six. I know. Just like this.

So that's what the vibe was. And then, you know, there's these different sections and stuff. Russ Elevado, who was the engineer. He produced some of these tracks, was a huge influence on this record. One of the huge personalities was there with DeAngel, like, all the time. He later went on to produce the R.H. Factor records with Roy Hargrove, incredible engineer. He's the one who really pushed them to do everything. Analog, nothing digital, no pro tools and stuff.

But this is him talking about how this came about the Spanish Joint track. Where did Spanish Joint come out? Actually, he had played that song for me on the... on the piano and he was saying that he should probably get Charlie Hunter on it or something. And Charlie's last day, he was about to leave and he came up to me and said, you know, is there anything I'm forgetting? Is there a song we should try to do? And I was like, well, how about Spanish joint?

And he's like, Spanish joint, oh shit. So he played it for Charlie and they did it pretty much. We got the first take. That's the first take you hear. within like an hour or something they kind of put the arrangement together and that was it it's so funny because it's

and we'll play the Charlie Hunter version that made the album but hearing that demo it's major Stevie vibes on the demo for sure like there's when he comes in with the melody singing the melody you get a much more Stevie sense of the song

like a Stevie Wonder influence than you do on the one that made the record right right and that piano is at Electric Lady Studio, which we should mention was another personality in this record. Jimmy Hendrits' bespoke built studio for him

from the early 70s. That's where this whole record was recorded. And he was actually playing on the keyboards and the piano that Stevie recorded there talking book. So there's a lot of direct connections with that, of course, with that room. So here's the track,

the actual track, and then we're going to break it down because I got some isolation on it too. One take. A little phase on his voice. Very talking bookish. Is that snare? I think he's sneaking some snare with still cross-staking it.

Yeah, snare. But all those details you already heard in the demo. Oh, it's all there, yeah. The Roy Chorus. Yeah, Roy Hargrove made everything he was ever on better. Yeah. By magnitudes. Yeah.

This bridge. And apparently each of the sections, there was no set form. There was just the three sections. And they were tracking it live, you know, in one take. We're going to listen to some more, some isolation. They were tracking it live. So, because Charlie Hunter had talked about, like,

he's like, I didn't really know when I was supposed to go to the next part, but DeAngelo would just be like, and then we'd go to that. And so, like, he showed him the three parts. And then he's like, I'll show you when we're going to it. And you can hear at the end, it gets, we're going to go all the way to the end, because it's got like some really cool stuff where it feels like it's, and then they go up a half, you know, they transpose it, it's cool.

Okay, so let's go over to our new secret bespoke system. And, okay, so what you were hearing, what you just heard is like very, it sounds like there's a bass. Well, check this out. So if we listen to just, that's just the guitar part, right? And now I'm going to add in the bass.

and then we're going to go to just the bass But this is all happening on the same This is all happening on the same instance At the same time This is the same Yeah So he's doing Yeah when you see Charlie Hunter live

Yeah this isn't even like By far the most impressive stuff you can do When you see him live He usually has two amps on stage A bass amp and a guitar amp And he's got two outputs from this guitar Even though it's all right here On the guitar

And then we can add in Ah That's all you need Killing drum group Add a little roll hard on top of that Oh, you want a little Roy? So Roy added the horn parts after everything else track live. And I love this here.

Yeah, I mean... And he voiced all that stuff out in those open-of-course. Of course he did. First of all, Roy is a melodic genius, as we both know. But he also, what you get when you get Roy is you get this like instant arranger as well. Yeah. So good. Like all those little clusters, that's not something that most people just hear.

And Roy's hearing that stuff so easily. It's really cool. So this is without drums. You can... In the dogs. Incredible voice. The counterpoint between the guitar line and Roy's. You can really hear the Virginia.

Yeah. And he can just isolate the voice. That bass line. And if you don't know Charlie Hunter, he is playing bass and soloing at the same time. Yes, yeah. This is all. So let me just take it back, because this is. This solo, I'm going to give you just Charlie Hunter.

Let me make sure I do this right here. Charlie Hunter and Roy, because Roy added these horns after. So one take, Charlie Hunter's playing the bass part. He's soloing. Roy puts so much stuff in there, but it just works somehow because it's a pretty busy solo, right? Check it out. This is just Roy and Charlie. Amazing.

And then Roy's getting even more stuff. Yeah, Roy is the big. being a part of the rhythm section. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like he's, Roy's like,

it's like he's playing the right hand of an organ or something. Right, right. And then check out this stuff. That's just Roy and DiAngelo. All that layered voices. killing. This is where it's kind of unsure what they were going to do.

Yeah, I mean, it's so funny because the album took so long. But one of the most... That's such a royal life. Boo-do-do-do-boo-ya. That's the way he improvised. One of the most charming parts about an album that took this long is that it still feels so loose. Yes. And like everything was on the deck.

Yeah. You know, they didn't get too precious with like, we got to really make sure that it sounds like someone produced this. Like, it just sounds like musicians letting what's happening, happen. It's my favorite music. Giovanni Hildo on Cungas I should have had to as well. That's the other music. And this is all just like,

you know they didn't know what section they were going to. That's the way we always have when we're not sure what's going to happen. Man, so just check out. I just want to play one more part of this with just the vocals because, like, DiAngelo is just killing it with this stuff. Nothing

with you Oh Oh No That's the way it is Wow That's all DeAngelo layered So that's fun

That's a good track You like that one? Yeah I like that one Yeah so that's kind of like The You know it's in the middle of the record Well I guess it's getting a little bit more It's sort of in the meat

And you know Charlie Hunter He's on three tracks and he just really, with the bass and the guitar, he just brings such a special thing to it. Well, you want to get into some, oh, you know what? I've got a couple other tracks. I want to get on before we get to our categories. Send it on. Like, this is one of my favorite tracks on here. And now I found out what the inspiration for this, this is kind of interesting.

Before I play it, I'm going to play you this. See if Tranquilly by Cooling the Gang. Yeah. That's great. What's the Cooling the Gang episode happened? I know exactly. Now here's DeAngel, different song. I never would have put that together.

It's fantastic. Of course. Okay, Pino on this. This is Pino on this mixture. Yeah. Oh, killing it. Amir with the bass drum is natural, right? No, this feels pretty straightforward.

Man, I love these Roy lines. This is Roy playing Flugolong mostly on this. And I want to just jump a little bit towards the end because there's some fun stuff with Roy. This is getting towards the app. Cross stick. Cross stick is king on this one. Pino starts to stretch out.

Oh, DiAngelo. There's a lot of vamps on this record, and I like him. This is like a little different each time. He's going to hit a harmonic in a second. Just letting him play. Man, it's such a vibe. Let him play. And I mean, you know, DeAngelo set this whole thing up.

Like, you can just feel it. Like, with his vocals, with his leadership on this, I mean, to be able to pull that kind of, like to create the platter for the chakrutari of soul. I mean, it's just incredible way. Say it again? I don't know what the hell I'm saying. I'm just saying, like, Roy was a bad boy. Pino was a bad boy.

But like together at that stuff, booboo-dipidoo-dip it, like messing around with that pentatonic stuff, after they've been vamping for like two minutes on the same progression and for it to be even more humane and just grooving. and just feel right, you know. I know, Peter, I know we're not in flex categories yet, but, or we're not, sorry, I know we're not in categories yet, but I have a flex category. Okay. That I want to throw out here, right?

There is a song in this album that is a cover song, and my flex category is. There's only one cover, right? So I know what that is. Is the cover better than the original? And I think in this case, this cover is better than the original. And I love the original. Don't get me wrong. Is the original of the Roberta Flack?

That's the one that I know that when I first heard. That's the original hit version. Do I have that on here? I think I do. Do I have it? Well, we have it on the Roberto Flack episode board. Oh, no, I got it right here. Sorry.

Oh, we've already done that album. Oh, I feel like making love. Yeah, we got it here. Yeah, so if that's the, I mean, that's an incredible version of Roberto, but this is a great version. I think this is a better version of the song. I go back to this one again and again and again. I probably listen to this once a month. There we got some snap.

Oh, no, we still cross. I think both. I think there's one. both happening. Yeah, like the feel of this one. So everything on it, this is Pino on bass, Amir on drums, everything else, guitar, keys, vocals is DeAngelo.

It's just, come on. But it's got a connection to that original, right? All those, like, little envelope filters that are happening. Yeah. Russ Elavado, man, bad boy. Roy here. Ah, perfect. Perfect.

That's perfect. DeAngelo's vocal, like, his intonation and his ingenuity, that combination of them? Man. Oh, come on. The harmonies through here. The vibe of this, man, more than the, it's the sum of all these parts. Yes, it is.

On this one, there's just, there's so much magic on this whole album. This is right in the pocket, man. And I think because of the way Amir is playing. It's very sexy. The way Amir is playing, like, it gives Pino the chance to, like, do all this interesting, like, bass. And DeAngelo's voice in the mix is super low. Yeah, super low.

Like so many layers of it, but it's like right in the middle. It's wild. That's why you can't understand anything he's saying. I know these words because of Roberta. Who is that they called it? This is bad. Okay, we can just sit here and listen to this all day. I'm saying, man.

You want to go for drinks together and just listen to this all day, man? It's crazy. So good. In the liner notes, whoever wrote the liners described, I think this is actually in the liner notes. that it's very hard to understand. That's why they put all the lyrics in there. It was described as DiAngelo as Bobby McFerion on opium.

I don't know if I like that. I don't know if I like it either, but that's what it says. Okay, just to jump back, because we mentioned like brown sugar, 1995. So this is really 96, 97, 98, 99, right? This is his first record. Oh, we didn't listen to Brown Sugar. No. This is 95.

But you hear the drums. Now we're on the grid, right? Killing, though. I love this. It's a skill. Such a deep bass on this one. Yeah. DeAngelo likes a bass.

Yeah. He likes it, and I mean that in the mix. Like, he likes a low-end heavy, low-mid-heavy mix. But in terms of like the keys. You know, the way he would layer his voice, single-long into the... Yeah. That's kind of the vibe of that, but that's how different, like, hey, the evolution from this to Voodoo is big. Voodoo is a little bit, I think, a little bit better.

It's like a sounding album. Like, it's like he's, he hit his strive with voodoo. Like, yeah, he took whatever. I mean, brown sugar's amazing, but I think he learned, probably learned some stuff from that. And man, we are all benefiting from the results of that. Yep. Okay.

And so one connector besides DiAngelo from that, especially that track, that's written by, or co-written by Raphael Saddique. Yeah. Who's going to have an influence on a track that we're going to listen to shortly? Underrated musician, Robert. Raphael Sadiq. Of course, Tony, Tony, and of his own incredible solo career,

but is behind a lot of your favorite tracks. Absolutely, yeah. And also really connected with DeAngelo going way back before, well, like back to Brown Sugar days when they first met, I think it was like their manager or the publisher or something connected them. Instead, I think you guys would hit it off. And they bonded over Hawkins family recordings, how they had like an encyclopedic knowledge.

And Raphael's older, kind of almost like half-generated. eight, I don't know. Yeah, I guess he's like eight, nine, ten years older than him. But like, they really, like, bonded on that. You hear it deeply in their music and the way that they would put stuff together. But before we get to that, of course, we're talking about how does it feel? I'm thinking a little chicken grease might be in. You know, actually, since you mentioned Raphael Sadiq and you brown sugar, if this, does voodoo, does Tony, Tony, is Tony, like a kind of a precursor to this? I think so. Yeah. I think that there's a, I mean, that's definitely like part of that 90s R&B sound, but like, That's a, I think there's a bunch. But a little more on this side of the fence than the others you mentioned.

For sure. Like there's a little bit more gospel. There's a little bit more gospel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But also like there's, you know, Tri-Pro Quest. We got to talk about that. We got to talk about a little bit about hip-hop and how, because there's a little bit of like, I mean, Redman and Method Man on the second track on this. Joshua Redman?

Joshua Redman. Exactly. DJ Premier produced one of the tracks on here. So there's a little bit of that here. But if you think about some of the, like, where kind of not. 90s R&B was going. There was definitely that lane where it was just like killer hip hop

beats right on the grid quantized with like great R&B glossy vocals on top of it. Like that was really much becoming the sound, you know? And a lot of folks had great success with that. But this is so different from that and you already hear the beginning of it

with brown sugar. Actually, so we talked about the live at Jazz Cafe, the kind of unknown or lesser known record. That came out in 98, but they recorded it. Brown Sugar came out in 95. He went on tour immediately, and with his band,

which was a killing band, they recorded in 95 in London this. And this is actually Brown Sugar, but from the live record, just for folks that don't know about this. You already hear. So this is a great, great record. A lot of like extended cuts, improvs, great background

vocals, Angie Stones on. I mean, it's a lot of really, really killer stuff there. Cool. So we were talking about, oh yeah, Should we do a little chicken grease? This is like, this was definitely, you know, like a known popular, whatever track from here like all these was, right? Yeah. I actually don't know what the singles were.

I mean, I know untitled, which I'm sure we're getting to was a single. But I don't remember what the other singles were because I was just listening to the whole album all year long. Right. James Poyser on Keys, shout out. Yeah. Incredible. from the roots and incredible musician

but the rhythmic stuff. Everybody is good with the bollas his thing. The rhythmic stuff the Diangelo's doing. The lyrics, you understand what's happening, right?

The story he's telling. He's almost doing some of that dizzy Gillespie shit. I just connect with Title chicken grease so much. Yeah. Just means so much to do. Apparently that was a prince term.

There was a chord that he called, that was close to this. It wasn't exactly what they're playing on guitar. He's like, give me the chicken grease. But it's like the rhythmic thing. But it's like the rhythmic thing. It's almost like a hip-hop. I mean, Tribe called Quest, big influencer you're hearing that.

But check this out. Just listen rhythmically. Come on, everybody, let's get on. I just want to put you down. I just want you all to get down. Everybody come there down. Yeah. Give me a little bit of that chick green.

And then check it out when he comes back in. It's so great. If you want to come all down in the front, but baby, no, we're school, we're school. Everybody that's making the phone, you're in school, but take a lesson from the blessings to blessings about the passion thing. I got the music and the instruments and the weapons that my weapons. That's just a half. Everybody on the floor.

That's the kiss of your feet. Yeah. That's just DiAngelo and Pino, of course. I just want you to put you down. I just want you all to get down. Everybody come lay down. Yeah.

And I'm not in love you. Yeah. Uh, uh, not the, um, outside for you face. Just together pretty good, huh? My old millennial heart just shines through with that.

Not a millennial. Okay. All right. No, never mind. You're like, it's not even sound right. I'm not going to do it. All right, are we there? How does it feel to you?

It feels, the chicken grease is, I'm hung up on the chicken grease because I am an older millennial and it's not good for my cholesterol. It's catching me up because I want it. All right, this was a really important track, notwithstanding or withstanding the video, the stellar video that goes, if you haven't seen this. The naked video. The naked video. If you haven't seen this, what would you be under the age of? Well, I did play it for my 22-year-old son.

Did he have any reference? He knew the record, but he'd never seen the video. And so I was like, you got to check out this video. And he saw it. He was like, wait, is that Arkelly? That was the first thing he said. Really? Wow.

Anyway, I mean, this was on VH1 for like every day, 10 times a day for like a year and a half. Right. Especially when the, what's the hours when the ladies are more likely to watch? It's a stunning thing. I mean, it's an amazing video, one of the most iconic music videos of all time. This is one of the great- Controversial in that it was sexually exploitive? We didn't know.

But it was very, very interesting. But this is such a great track. So we talked about Raphael Sadiq. This is, was this written? Yeah, it was written by DeAngelo and Raphael Sadiq. And Raphael Sadiq played guitar and bass on here. Awesome. And, you know, so it's just them, DeAngelo,

Quest on drums. And I love the way this track starts. It starts. I actually will never, I will never forget the first time I heard this song. Because I was in like this like really dark. red, cushioned, New York City,

lower Manhattan lounge. Damn. It was just a vibe. And we... A brothel? No. What are you talking?

The way you're describing it. Well, I'm thinking about the song. Where's your head at? The song. Okay, yeah. Okay. But, uh, no,

just like hanging out all night, late night. You know what I mean? Like one of those nights. It's like, you know, 21 years old.

Yeah. And then this came on, the DJ put this on, and it was great sound system in this, like, atmosphere place. And I'll just never forget

getting hit in the chest by the production on this. Oh, the bass will hit you in the chest. I was like, I just couldn't stop being distracted by the song and what was going on. It's so good. It's so good.

Let's just check it out. And just pay attention to the way this starts because I don't know if this was as obvious with the video and with the radio. But like for being such like a powerful ballad, it starts in a very disjointed way that I think is super effective.

Now this is where the time is going to sway a little bit. But DeAngelo's, that gospel piano stuff you see is what bridges it together rhythmically. Great key for D major. That octave, come on.

Raphael Sadiq. Incredible. Just like four masters laying it down. Yeah. Incredible. I mean, it's just straight-up gospel chords right here. It's fairly simple.

It's one of the more simple songs on the whole album. And it's one of the most... It's harmonically simple, but super interesting. Starting on, like, backdoor fake 25. I mean, backdoor 25. And it's like 2 to the 4 chord, up to the 7. All right, we're going to jump up to... What are you doing?

Sorry. What are you... Sorry, man. What are you going to jump? Where? I just caught away. Oh, did you hear that? Prince.

Prince's hands. His little hands are all over this track, for sure. Especially that guitar player. Okay, we can. No, no, no, no. Because there's some apex moments I want to talk about later. My apex moment is when it goes to the bridge, which is like, what is it, like, four minutes into this. Which to me is incredible that they waited that long.

So let's, maybe let's get to your desert island track, which is this. Yeah. Right? This is your desert island? No, Spanish joint. We already do that. But let's just keep playing until we get to the bridge. Because some people may be like, well, the bridge is just whatever.

But when you hear it building up, I mean, vocal, background, counter melody, masterclass all over this track. I mean, from Dianz. You want to learn how to harmonize a melody? Wait, is this Raphael Cidique on the bass as well? Yeah, bass and guitar. Yeah. All these years, I thought this was Pino. No, I know.

Everybody is doing. Yeah. I feel kind of blown away by that. It's a great bridge. Music interlude. That form, so patient. That's why that's my apex because you go through that. You don't even need that, but it's, and then this.

Also, the whole, the entire vocal performance. There's like six of these guys. Yeah. They're all the Encelo. Yeah. Yeah, you feel the presence of Prince. on this. Let's just chill for a minute.

So my impact's moment is about to happen. They're going to build this up, and then they actually change the chord progression. Yeah. At the end. It's very, very subtle. Yeah. But it makes a huge difference. It's like the sun coming through.

Going from A minor to G minor originally, but they'll go to A minor to C here. It's a print score. It's very prince. Time is like, appropriately so. And that cut off because they ran out of tape. You're kidding. No, that's exactly what happened. Like literally the tape was...

The tape. This was all... Russ Elavado, the engineer, insisted on this all being done on analog tape, even though digital process because he loved the sound. I know I'm going to get audio engineer nerds being like, it doesn't make a difference.

Yeah, you just heard the difference. But the tape ran out because they apparently went through like 150 reels and they were expensive. They were like $200 per reel at the time. And I guess they looked at it and he knew he had like seven minutes left

on it. He's like, oh, well, this song's not going to be more than seven minutes, but they got to vamping, they got to do and all that. And they ran. out. So that's why it ends abruptly. And there's one more track after this, and

it's called Africa. It's one of my favorite tracks, but I realize, Peter, I don't think it's my, I don't think it's my Desert Island track. Because you have it down as your Desert Island. That's okay. Yeah, Africa is actually my second favorite track on the whole album. I like this Africa, but it's only my second favorite song called Africa. I like the meter's Africa. A little better.

What about Toto's Africa? Do you enjoy that? I like that one's good. This one's better, actually. The Angelo's better than both of those. Songs written after continents. But I think actually the cover of Feel Like Making Love is my favorite. It's so good. It's a desert on a track for me.

What about up next? What do you got after this ends on your music streaming service? Up next. I've got live at the London Jazz Cafe just because even though it's before us, I think it's such a cool record. And once I get into the DeAngelo mode, I want to stay there. And then also the R.H Factor, Roy Harger, which was inspired from this, he recorded it right after Voodoo came out with the same Russ Elavado co-producing and a lot of the same kind of vibe. And has that same Roy Harger of stamp that you hear all over this record.

What about you for up next? I have either, I have two choices. I have either Purple Rain, which I think would be a great up next after that. Or, and this is just a personal thing, I have Radiohead's Kid A, because it came out the same year. And I remember I had my Manhattan Portage bag, and I had my disc man. Yes. A red disc man. Nice.

And I'd have this. I'd have voodoo. I'd have Kid A. I'd have some, I'd probably have some cold train in there, of course. But, like, I would be walking around New York City listening to those two albums next to each other all the time. Man, music is about, like, that time. It's like going back. Like, I could tell for you, I know for me.

Like, I'm thinking about all the things with that song, the different experiences I had. It takes you back. Like, we think it's about, like, chord changes. No, it's not. And, like, how the vocalist's harmon. No, no, it's the whole package. But when you can put together a masterpiece like DeAngelo did, like this on voodoo, man, it's such a gift, right? It's a gift because it does take you back to that.

It's a gift because it'll be with us our whole lives. Yeah. And there's even listening to it with you here today, I'm learning a bunch of new stuff that I thought I knew everything about this. It turns out I'm ignorant to a lot of things. And it's just like you hear new things every time with this music, especially music like this where everybody is like S-tier level player or producer or songwriter. And you just get to hear them play. Like DeAngelo lets people play. And you get to hear, like hearing those details from Roy that you just stemmed out for us here was so.

cool and I will be thinking about that and going back to that for a while. So great. What about, uh, bespoke Spotify playlists. Yeah, you're bespoke Spotify playlist. When you got? So I've got, uh, soul, songs, R&B. What? I know a little controversial. I think this is like the ultimate like late 90s soul record. You could say neo soul, whatever. I get it. But I think that this is more soul, less R&B. Uh, so there's other records I will put in here in terms of listening to it as well on the Spotify playlist. Not that there's anything wrong with R&B. I think he won, or

it was nominated for Grammy for R&B, so maybe I'm wrong. But anyway, it just reminds me a sole record. I got two ideas here. I got one Spotify playlist called Cross Sticking. Cross Sticking. It's just a lot of tracks with cross sticks. Yeah, what else? Yeah, there could be some cool stuff on that. And I got another one that could be

for like for special times called maybe like... For Centauri Times. You want to make out? That's the thing of the playlist. Want to make out? Wow.

That's not what I thought you were going to say. It's the direct path. Back to that red red velvet brothel in New York. Got it. What about my quibble bits? My only quibble bits is with your red velvet brothel. That's it. That's all I got.

What are your quibble bits? Okay. The bass, sonically, in certain situations, the base, can the base be too booming? I mean, in here, it sounds incredible. Sounds great. With headphones sometimes in my car, it's just, so, it's like a gut punch. And like you say, like, if you're in the right situation,

there's nothing like it. But I mean, the base is like, like, you got to have great system. You got to have, you know, some sub-woof, you know, some sub-wif, okay. Hard pass. Okay. And then a quibble bit, you can't understand anything DeAngel says on the entire record. Yeah, you know, and again, I would like to... But that's part of the

vibe. I would like to bring Radiohead and Kid A into this situation because it's a very similar thing. I don't think I know, I mentioned those two albums that I listened to at the same time on the same year. I don't think I know more than 10 words from both of them combined, but that's okay. But that's similar to this, but then it's not like when we talked about Steely Dan, like on Asia and like a lot of the, like, you can hear what words they're saying,

but a lot of it doesn't make sense to me. This is different. It's just like it's so... The lyrics are probably pretty good. Yeah, and some of them that you can hear, but it's like, I mean, I know play a play is, there's all this like basketball stuff. He's so low in the mix. Yeah.

And then it's usually got like multiple chords of them. He's like an instrument on this. Like the vocals are always, but I think this is such an instrumental vocal record. for him. Yeah. And then also there's a lot of vamps. That's a quibble bit, but I love all the vamps.

Snobometer, what do you got? Okay. Is it a one or a ten? It's a one or a ten? Do you think it's super snobby? I think it's kind of a snobby record, right? Is it? No.

It was a huge hit. We're going five. Five? I have like, it's a one or two. It was a major hit record. Yeah, okay. Four. The snobometer confuses me.

We've talked about that. No, but snobs love. this record. Like, this is a record that even if you're not like... But it's a 10, if only snobs like it. Oh.

So what would a 10 be? What kind of record? Like, giant steps. No, not giant. Would be like, the shape of jazz to come would be like near 10. No, but that's on like Desert Island jazz lists all the time.

Yeah, but it's for snobby jazz musicians. We're talking about people who are just... This is for snobby soul lovers. Yeah, but a lot of people like this album. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

But is brown sugar is less snobbing? This is more snobby. than brown sugar. This is less accessible than brown sugar. Way bigger hit than brown sugar. Okay, okay. Beg to differ. Let's move on. It wasn't, I think it was objectively. I've got a, I've got a, no, a new category for you.

We talked about there's four DeAngelo records. I think there was some, maybe some EP, some other things, four that I'm aware of, that I've listened to, that I've listened to a lot. What is your favorite? This one. Okay. This one's very good. I'm going to say this is my second favorite.

Okay. I'm going to rank them. live at jazz cafe number one this is number two black Messiah maybe three that's a great record we might have to do that and then brown sugar which is great too I mean honestly I'm gonna go

voodoo black Messiah brown sugar live at jazz again okay is it better than KOB no I say it's different it's not about better he cannot this is a great record man

every week It's like, it's maybe. No, sometimes. I said different, maybe. Okay. Okay. Okay. Accut your malls.

Nine. Yeah, I said nine to. Yeah. Could almost be a 10. Really, really good. There's nothing wrong with it. It's great. Incredible.

Video is incredible. All of it. Man, leave us a comment. Yeah. On the YouTube. We get in some great comments, right? Yeah. You know, we're having fun here.

Thank you for this, man. Thank you, Pete. This is good. Until next time. You'll hear it.