D'ANGELO AND THE VANGUARD
D'Angelo: Vocals, Piano, Keyboards, Synthesizers, Guitars, Bass Guitar, Drum Programming, Sitar
Questlove: Drums and Drum Programming
Pino Palladino: Bass Guitar
Roy Hargrove: Trumpet, Flugel Horn, Cornet and Brass and Horn Arrangements
James Gadson: Drums
Chris "Daddy' Dave: Drums
Jesse Johnson: Guitars
Spanky Alford: Guitars
Mark Hammond: Flamenco Guitar
Produced by D'Angelo
Released December 15, 2014
I almost cannot believe that it has actually arrived! I just cannot believe it!!
Dear readers and listeners, please allow me to add my voice to the already massive choir as I proclaim my delirious excitement over the release of "Black Messiah," the third album from singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist D'Angelo, the first musical signs of life from him in over 14 full years.
It is an album that I was fearing would never see the light of day as I have been reading about how the work has been "99% done" for years now and also due to the artist's personal health and legal struggles over this lengthy time period. "Lost" or extremely long gestating albums are not an anomaly within the realms of popular music of course (think Guns N' Roses), but the fever pitch that I have felt over this particular work is something that I can honestly say that I have not felt since the days in December 1987 when Prince shockingly pulled his then latest work "The Black Album" from release mere days before it was set to hit the record stores, thus prompting its status as existing as one of music's most bootlegged artifacts before its eventual and decidedly quiet limited release in 1994. Yet for some reason, and with no disrespect given towards His Royal Badness, the appearance of any new music from D'Angelo feels especially miraculous.
While D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar" (released July 3, 1995) was the artist's slick calling card, it was his second album, the murky and moody masterpiece "Voodoo" (released January 25, 2000) that sent rapturous shockwaves through the popular music landscapes, most notably throughout soul, R&B and hip-hop as that album majestically bridged the gaps between all three of those musical genres plus several more on top of them. "Voodoo" was and remains an album that is a defining musical statement for one idiosyncratic artist as well as a musical touchstone that exists as a timeless work of art that has eclipsed so many of its musical peers through its vast reach and unstoppable influence. It is essentially the kind of album that really just isn't made anymore as it has only continued to not only reveal itself over the years but it has continued to feel completely fresh, urgent and vibrant regardless of the musical landscape that surrounds it. If D'Angelo had only made those two albums, his musical legacy would be set in stone.
Even so, "Voodoo" left me wanting more and wondering just where he could possibly go next and thus, I waited, waited, waited, waited and waited even more with all of you. Now that the monolithically entitled "Black Messiah" is here, I am compelled to deliver my first thoughts based upon my very first listen. I guess the best way to describe my emotions when listening to the album is that my mouth dropped open over and again throughout the nearly 60 minute experience as what I was hearing was unlike anything else that I have heard in 2014 and it clearly showcased the musical evolution of D'Angelo as I really think that his "Black Messiah" is exuberantly the album that forces us to listen in a way that we are currently not accustomed to listening, especially as music has become a commodity of instant gratification instead of luxurious art that is designed to be savored. "Black Messiah" is music at its most succulent and satiating.
For an artist who had reportedly been plagued with issues of decreasing self-confidence and mounting insecurity over the last 14 years, Side A of "Black Messiah" finds D'Angelo in supreme command of his massive musical powers. "Ain't That Easy" opens the album, as if from the sonic ether, with a groove that could only be described as a "pimp strut." The moment those stacked vocals emerge from the molasses thick bed of sound, complete with THICK bass and that amazing hand clap sound that hits right on the drum beat, the reality of the existence of "Black Messiah" just made me want to jump and shout.
The album's second track "1000 Deaths," is actually one that I was somewhat familiar with as I first heard a version of it many years ago through one of those pesky internet leaks. Now updated and fully completed, the track is a volcanic mind blower. One of the more overtly political songs on the album or else one complete with religious allegory, the sonic textures of this song are the most avant garde of anything D'Angelo has released so far as it sounds like an amalgam of Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain" (released July 12, 1971), Sly And The Family Stone's "There's A Riot Goin' On" (released November 20, 1971) and 1970's era Miles Davis, most specifically the cacophonous fury of a selection like the disturbing "Rated X."
D'Angelo's vocals are at their most distorted and buried in the mix as the propulsive bass (played by D), the searing guitars (also played by D) and Questlove's pounding martial drums are augmented by a preacher's ferocious sermonizing of a Jesus Christ that is not whitewashed but the one with hair of "laaaaamb's wool!" This song will definitely test the limits of your speakers as this truly sounds like nothing less than the apocalypse.
"The Charade" arrives as something of an ethereal aftermath to "1000 Deaths," as it offers another overt social/racial/political lament. "All we wanted was a chance to talk/'Stead we only got outlined in chalk/Feet have bled a million miles we've walked/Revealing at the end of the day, the charade," goes the chorus, signifying a constant sorrowful reality of life in Black America that is up to the minute as well as one that is weaved into the fabric of the nation. This is another track that I was familiar with due to all of the YouTube postings from D'Angelo's 2012 tour. At that time, the guitar tones and melodies fully revealed a massive Prince influence as it just sounded like a lost track from the "1999" era. Now completed, the song's Prince leanings have been tempered a bit in order for D'Angelo to fully make the song sound more like himself. He succeeds beautifully and mournfully.
From the darkness into the light. "Sugah Daddy" is the album's most playful track as it is a sassy, smutty tune complete with D'Angelo's peerless multi-tracked falsetto, hands tapping on legs drum beats and Roy Hargrove's elegant horn arrangement that instantly made me think of Duke Ellington.
Side A concludes with "Really Love," an atmospheric, smoky ballad that begins with a slow burn of building yet stormy, mournful strings and seductive Spanish guitar. For a ballad, somehow, this track made me feel not necessarily relaxed, despite its groove. But one that carried its own tension as if we are finding D'Angelo lost in a dream of romance and perhaps regretful reality of memory and loss. Compared to the compression and contention of the albums first four tracks, "Really Love" allows the music ample space to breathe and flow gorgeously, especially when D's vocals take center stage.
Where Side A felt to be about invitation and agitation (racial, political, sexual, romantic), Side B (which opens with audible vinyl scratches and pops) is a bit slower and more meditative. With "Back To The Future (Part 1)" we are given a relaxed funk groove of reminiscence that possesses house party crowd noises like in Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and a light string section that for me recalled the strings heard in The Beatles' "Martha My Dear." When D'Angelo, sings his repeated refrain "I just wanna go back/ Back to the way it was," we aren't given any specifics about what he is wishing to return to, which I thought was genius because we can travel backwards while remaining in the present together yet in a completely individualized fashion. What do you wish to return to? As I listened to "Black Messiah," I lovingly recalled when the art of the album was revered, when listening was the main event, and there I was as a kid, being sprawled across my basement floor with album jackets and liner notes laid in front of me, my ears filled with whatever sounds emanated from the speakers.
"Till Its Done (Tutu)" brings us out of our flashback reverie straight to a nearly dreamlike or fitful sleep filled journey through our global ills of pollution and acid rain. This is followed masterfully by the stunning and self-explanatory "Prayer," which almost sounds like an unearthed track from Prince's "Sign O' The Times" era. This is woozy funk with inebriated keyboards supplying a nearly sea sick sway, superbly angular guitar work and those incredible drums which slow down out of the tempo and then jerk back to attention as if you are falling asleep only to be abruptly awakened. Come to think of it, that sounds like what it is to live in 21st century America. Well played, D. The spirits of both Sam Cooke and J Dilla are smiling upon you on this track that sounds like a transmission from the moon.
For "Betray My Heart," D'Angelo conjures up his inner Wes Montgomery or George Benson for light jazzy guitars and "The Door," with its downright nasty, DEEP bass guitar provides that good 'ol mid summer porch swing funk.
After a reprise with "Back To The Future (Part II)," the album closes with a jaw dropper. "Another Life," a nearly six minute ballad introduced by Questlove's unmistakable drums is D'Angelo's sweeping, beautifully melodic ode in the vein of Prince's "Adore" merged with The Delfonics' "Didn't I Blow Your Mind?" For all of you aspiring singers or for those who just do not even realize, D'Angelo's vocals (both lead and backing) are a MASTER CLASS in singing and how to convey real emotion and a depth of soul...something that is supremely lacking in music these days. It was a perfect finale yet it was also a song that I just did not want to end.
"Black Messiah," as credited to D'Angelo and the Vanguard, is simultaneously raw and lush, sparse and heavily multi-layered, familiar and esoteric, pristine and inscrutable, meticulously designed yet free flowing and loose in its performance and presentation as if the songs are shape shifting in real time every time. D'Angelo musical influences of Sly Stone, George Clinton and most notably Marvin Gaye and Prince continue to be worn heavily on his sleeves but so brilliantly, he is able to congeal his inspirations into a musical stew that is uncompromisingly none other than himself.
While D'Angelo continues to function as a multi-instrumentalist, he is aided and abetted heroically by The Vanguard, a collective of key collaborators from bassist Pino Palladino, trumpeter and horn arranger Roy Hargrove, the MIGHTY Questlove on drums plus new members to the fold including drummer Chris "Daddy" Dave, the glorious guitarist extraordinaire (and former Prince associate) Jesse Johnson and lyrical assistance from Funkadelic's Kendra Foster and the inimitable Q-Tip on several selections.
What is notable this time around is D'Angelo's increased and intensely serious commitment to his guitar playing, an instrument he has focused his attention towards during his lengthy sabbatical. Whether (mostly) alone or together, D'Angelo and the Vanguard have concocted a collection of late night grooves and intoxicating sonic textures that often feel as if they will fall apart only to remain rapturously together as well as those insistently repetitive rhythms that grow into hypnotic musical mantras. The musicianship throughout "Black Messiah" is the definition of superior.
But that VOICE!!!! D'Angelo's irreplaceable stacked vocals remain formidable and of a unquestionably rare breed as they can seduce as well as terrify all the while exuding the vastness of life between the church and the corner and all spaces in between. As with "Voodoo," D'Angelo's vocals are distinctly dense yet on "Black Messiah," they have grown more distorted, a tactic that I think (again) forces us to listen harder and lean in even closer to try and determine precisely what he is singing. Just think for a moment though. Did you ever really know what James Brown was singing? Even so, you always understood! "Black Messiah" is not a passive experience or mindless fashion statement. On just one listen while driving around the city, it is obvious that this is an album not only of D'Angelo's hallmarks of love, sex, sin and salvation but also one of societal unrest, political solidarity and uprising, and spiritual deliverance.
Like "Voodoo," "Black Messiah" from D'Angelo and the Vanguard feels as if this is an album that could only arrive at this point in time but yet feels powerfully out of time as it seems to encapsulate so much of popular music from the past, present and even points to its potential future all at the same time. But it is potential future for music if only we want it. "Black Messiah" is not just an album for music geeks like myself. This is music for every soul that wants to hear true artistry, skill and emotional on rapturously loving display from a musician who treats music as it should be treated: as a viable form of art and artistic expression.
Music is existing within a most precarious time, as far as I am concerned. But even so, 2014 has delivered a well spring of wondrous albums that I have been so fortunate to have been able to hear, add to my personal collection and now have the opportunity to revisit again and again and again.
But first...I have to listen to "Black Messiah" all over again. D'Angelo, now that you are back, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE STAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
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