00:00:02:22 - 00:00:18:03
Unknown
Hey, what's up Adam? What's up? Peter? How was your weekend? Man, it was great. My sister Kate. Mine was crazy. I did this gig down in Branson in the Ozarks with Ron. Okay? He says hello, by the way. Oh, yeah. It was a duo gig, just the two of us, but it was actually a trio gig. Well, how's that possible?
00:00:18:07 - 00:00:35:16
Unknown
Well, I was playing accordion. Yeah, kind of weird for me, but, you know. Yeah. In Branson, I bet I was killin. Yeah. And, Ron was on bass guitar and glockenspiel. Oh. So it was kind of a trio that he was doing both. It was crazy, actually. That reminds me, you know what we're doing today? What's that? Oh, yeah.
00:00:35:16 - 00:01:19:06
Unknown
Okay.
00:01:19:08 - 00:01:24:02
Unknown
Okay.
00:01:24:02 - 00:01:33:12
Unknown
to look at that? There you go. You'll hear it. Are there, like, title cards and things on it?
00:01:33:14 - 00:01:48:22
Unknown
Yeah, but we kind of just decided, since you had that note, that we're just going to start from scratch. We have all the audio files and stuff, so. Okay, cool. Cool, cool. There seem to be times where where our voices. Because I think we were miked. Because we were in that weird set up by the organ. You might have to do some finessing with it a little bit.
00:01:49:00 - 00:02:19:02
Unknown
Okay. Yeah. We'll take a look at it. Cool. I think it's going to be good, though. Larry's. We gotta sign Larry to more stuff. We're feeling good about the original letter, so I think, you know. Yeah. You better.
00:02:19:04 - 00:02:29:15
Unknown
Damn. How did I forget to put, You know. Damn. Okay, I fucking up. Get a little Charlie Hunter history here because he was fairly young right off the docks. Is
00:02:29:15 - 00:02:37:20
Unknown
San Francisco Pierce, or. Yeah, I got to put him in, and he's like a huge part of this thing they almost were going to do when they went.
00:02:37:20 - 00:03:06:07
Unknown
They were already working on this record, and they were like, well, let's say for the thing. Yeah. But I mean, he's such a big part of this. Is he from San Francisco? I think he's from the Bay area. Yeah. You know, Poyser follows us and is like our shit. Oh, yeah, a lot. Might be someone can reach out to actually, he was born in 67, so he was like Poyser.
00:03:06:08 - 00:03:19:06
Unknown
No. Hunter. Hunter. So at this time, 30 ish 60s? Yeah.
00:03:19:08 - 00:03:40:09
Unknown
But you know about how D'Angelo knew about Charlie Hunter. Okay, we'll tell that story. The fuck? Yeah. So this is what it's gonna be. This is gonna be about personal. Because this really was, like, a collaboration thing. Questlove. D'Angelo. Pino. Roy. Yeah. Russell Lovato who, I've met him. I've actually hung with him a few times. Man, this would be cool.
00:03:40:09 - 00:03:58:10
Unknown
Sometime to and think about, like, talking to some of these people. Charlie Hunter I know a little bit I don't know, like some of the interviews I saw with them, though, they're even like Charlie Hunter, like, you know, they can't like what's it's natural they contradict each other a little bit. Yeah. Because like, Russ was like definitely Spanish.
00:03:58:10 - 00:04:06:20
Unknown
I was one take. He's like, that was one take. And Charlie Howard was like, I think we did a couple of them. But you know, it's just kind of like they're remembering whatever.
00:04:06:20 - 00:04:17:13
Unknown
Okay. I'll tell the story about that. So that should be for the set up for, Spanish joint.
00:04:20:01 - 00:04:41:19
Unknown
Man, how did he go from this to, like, magic guitar? Not. I mean, to this looking guy, you know, like, I believe he lives in North Carolina full time. Yeah, it lives in Montclair. Real close to Bryan for years. Oh, really? Yeah, it was it his house? One. Oh that's right. Yeah. And my buddy Derek Phillips played drums with them for years.
00:04:41:22 - 00:04:50:12
Unknown
Oh yeah. Yeah. Right, right. And John Ellis was right. Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:50:14 - 00:05:03:03
Unknown
Okay. I'm a nurse. Are we. Are we dialed in here? Very dialed. All right, we'll clap and we'll start.
00:05:03:05 - 00:05:11:15
Unknown
A second. Let me get situated. Come on. Is this right? My name. Well, now it seemed a little different than another clap at the start.
00:05:11:15 - 00:05:14:19
Unknown
Are you cool? I'm a little nervous on this one, man.
00:05:14:19 - 00:05:25:00
Unknown
Okay. I'm Adam, and I'm Peter Martin, and you're listening to the You'll Hear It podcast. Hello? Oh, boy. Here we go.
00:05:25:00 - 00:05:33:12
Unknown
Are you serious? I'm sorry. Boy. Yeah. It's.
00:05:33:12 - 00:05:46:12
Unknown
Oh, no. No, no, I don't think, this is totally typical. This is this is this is expected for sure. Okay.
00:05:46:14 - 00:05:55:14
Unknown
I'm passing on how much freedom I hear about the war, and it's been done. 1100. Yeah. Course it's a
00:05:55:14 - 00:06:06:17
Unknown
the. So they'll frame in a good way. Yeah for sure for sure. Yeah. We'll carve it out. And sometimes we'll even carve it out as we're reporting. We'll be like this isn't working or let's cut this part or whatever.
00:06:06:17 - 00:06:32:08
Unknown
But yeah, it looks like I take some of this for this March. Absolutely. It looks fun. I want to be like, it's kind of a no cuts situation. Is that generally true or just, mostly true. Like there's usually no, and, and if you want to talk to any of our, like, Caleb, who edits these, Sam who edits these, like, there's almost no big cuts.
00:06:32:08 - 00:06:35:04
Unknown
Usually as far as, like, we're gonna take out a whole
00:06:35:04 - 00:06:56:21
Unknown
afterwards. I think they'll sort of clean up some of the, and ums and sniffles and coughs and whatnot, but, Yeah, it's pretty. We try to keep it as a conversation, you know, here by the end of the school and year back, like if you fall out of school, we will just acknowledge it and move on it.
00:06:56:21 - 00:07:08:12
Unknown
don't you want something to eat or something? Motherfucker? You want? No. Definitely not. Some types.
00:07:08:14 - 00:07:23:06
Unknown
Sorry, I got a short on my hands here soon, Oh. Do you. Which one? Just one for me. Yes, sir. Oh, what? One on one. Yeah, one had ten, I mean, one. I know what time you're recording this, right? Yes.
00:07:23:06 - 00:07:31:17
Unknown
Okay, okay. Ready? Yeah. Hold up, hold up. It's situated. We got. Guess we got the press.
00:07:31:17 - 00:07:52:21
Unknown
The press is here. Let's get this here. I'm Adam Ennis, and I'm Peter Martin, and you're listening to the You'll Hear It podcast, music explored. Explored, brought to you today by Open Studio. Go to Open studio jazz.com for your jazz lesson needs. And Peter yes, you can go to our brand new bespoke. Did you say brand new? Brand new.
00:07:53:01 - 00:08:16:22
Unknown
Okay. Open Studio music YouTube channel. Yes. We're posting performances from not just some of our performances for the intros and outros here on the show, but also some originals that you and I are writing based on the shorts in 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.
00:08:17:01 - 00:08:32:09
Unknown
Wow, really go out on a limb. There. Dare you may know, there's 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 am a part of. Yeah, so that's been fun. Yeah, this is nice stuff. We're having a great time over there.
00:08:32:09 - 00:08:50:00
Unknown
So go to that. Check that out. That's open studio music on YouTube. That's right. Ecom. That sounds like a good talk to you to talk. No. Peter. Big day. Yes. This is a big day. Very big day. And I know we always say that these are big albums, you know. No, I think there's been a couple times we didn't say anything.
00:08:50:00 - 00:09:09:10
Unknown
I know now people are going to be like, oh, how come you didn't say it for that album? But this is a big album. Yeah, this is a big this is, we're going to take you back to a time that I think even young Adam Manis might remember. It's 25 years ago now. This is 100% in my sort of top ten most influential albums of my life.
00:09:09:10 - 00:09:31:17
Unknown
And I think a lot of folks of my generation. Of your generation. Yeah. Anybody who is sort of like, aware around the year 2000. Yeah. Older millennials to younger Gen Xers. That's right. And beyond. If you were into music. Yeah. You couldn't miss D'Angelo's voodoo album. Yes it was. It was just an incredible huge hit album commercially, but also artistically.
00:09:31:17 - 00:09:41:08
Unknown
Yes. And it's 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
00:09:41:08 - 00:09:43:06
Unknown
you listen to are really young people now.
00:09:43:06 - 00:09:45:18
Unknown
record like what's going on? Or so I always wonder about that.
00:09:45:18 - 00:10:01:06
Unknown
Like when we are 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, no, I was hearing it like 15 years after. Well, maybe this conversation we can have towards the end about like, how has this album aged?
00:10:01:06 - 00:10:17:06
Unknown
Yeah. You know what I mean? Because now we are 25 years out from it. And how is it received now? Yeah, yeah. And it was like a really anticipated record because, doesn't make a lot of money. Dance was made for rappers. Let's go ahead and put that out there now like 30 years. Yeah. In more than 30 years.
00:10:17:06 - 00:10:43:09
Unknown
Oh my gosh. But you know, he's like this record because Brown Sugar which came out like what was that like 94 nine. Amazing. Something like that amazing album. Yeah. Was was a huge hit record. And then, but this is a little bit kind of a different record, but 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.
00:10:43:09 - 00:11:01:14
Unknown
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, this tracks at midnight, you know, that's true. I think a lot of pop artists are kind of constantly releasing singles. Yeah, leading up to an album and in between.
00:11:01:14 - 00:11:25:05
Unknown
Yes. Even like right after an album, the 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 D'Angelo in 94, like set in Brown Sugar. Yeah. And then we don't hear from them again. Really. Right. Until this drops in 2000 I think is this this came out in 2000 and February 2000, but they were working on it like, you know, 96, 97, I mean, 97, 98, 99, I guess mainly 98, 99.
00:11:25:07 - 00:11:43:12
Unknown
He did have a great record. They came out which is, live at the Jazz Cafe. A lot of people don't know about this record. It came out everywhere. 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.
00:11:43:12 - 00:12:00:08
Unknown
It's incredible record killing. So that was a little bit of a bridge between, those things. I remember getting the the CD in Japan, they 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. So pretty hipster run.
00:12:00:08 - 00:12:14:22
Unknown
You just went on there. So this is the record. Most people don't know about it. It's I'm always surprised. Japan. No, no, no. When I, when I tell people I was like, was it only released? I had to look it up. It was it was released everywhere. Incredible record actually live like live at the London Jazz Cafe.
00:12:15:00 - 00:12:34:15
Unknown
So let's talk a little bit more about D'Angelo himself. The man himself. So born in 1974? Yes, in Richmond, 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. It's all over his music.
00:12:34:21 - 00:13:00:22
Unknown
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 the trinity of, like, soul music, you know, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye really steeped in that.
00:13:00:22 - 00:13:29:17
Unknown
And then, of course, Prince, Michael Jackson, that whole tradition, but also gospel, he talks about the Hawkins family like those recordings. Once he heard that just changed his whole his whole thing, a lot of musical references and all of his recordings to that. And then, 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 D'Angelo, even before he got to New York, had been listening to and sort of tracking.
00:13:29:19 - 00:13:50:03
Unknown
Roy was a couple is was a couple of years older than him. So, yeah. Pretty interesting influences every jazz musician that I was friends with this time I was I had just moved to New York. Yeah. When this came out and, and, all of my musical friends there were obsessed with this album. This is this is definitely, like, catnip for jazz musicians.
00:13:50:03 - 00:13:51:09
Unknown
Yeah, it's got Roy on it,
00:13:51:09 - 00:14:08:06
Unknown
that. It's just there's a feeling of it that that you can hear. He's steeped. Yeah, in several different genres of music that a lot of minor nines or nines. Yeah. I mean I vamps, I felt the connection from, from Brown Sugar. Oh yeah. Just like immediately like I this feels very familiar.
00:14:08:08 - 00:14:25:00
Unknown
Yeah. I mean I remember Brown Sugar like that was before that record even came out. I remember Mark Whitfield who played on on a couple tracks on there. Friend of the show. Friend of the show. Dear friend of mine for many years, Larry Grenadiers playing some on that. It was a bunch of jazz like little influences on that record.
00:14:25:02 - 00:14:42:09
Unknown
But that you know, Brown Sugar maybe was was seen even by D'Angelo himself as more of, like a R&B type of record. Yeah. And I'm going to put it out there now. Oh, boy. 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.
00:14:42:11 - 00:14:58:20
Unknown
You're going to have to define some genres here and then give us some reason to just throw this out there without any thing to back it up. Brown sugar is definitely more I know that they were talking about, you know, neo soul and that whole thing, which is like a very sloppy term in a way. But it was definitely, you know, a trend.
00:14:58:22 - 00:15:19:22
Unknown
But I think that this record is just it's almost a reaction to sort of that 90s R&B sound, which, you know, really started in the late 80s. You got a problem with Jodeci. What's up? Jodeci, SWV, TLC, lot of acronyms, a lot of initials, boys to man and really like Whitney Houston, even a lot of kind of pop crossover.
00:15:19:22 - 00:15:39:19
Unknown
We just have a 90s R&B episode. Now that you're saying it's great. 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 Babyface, Janet Jackson and, you know, Terry Lewis, Jimmy Jam like that.
00:15:39:19 - 00:15:57:14
Unknown
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 Gaye, George Clinton, Kool in the gang. Yeah, with like Prince and Michael Jackson, a sort of Prince nectar. A lot of a lot of Prince.
00:15:57:14 - 00:16:14:12
Unknown
We're going to get into that. So 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 play a player.
00:16:14:14 - 00:16:19:16
Unknown
Are you are you going to.
00:16:19:18 - 00:16:35:09
Unknown
So you already know this is a different kind of record, right? I mean, you know, I had.
00:16:35:11 - 00:16:54:09
Unknown
Yeah. From the, from the first acrostic. Yeah. It sounds different. Yeah. The dry ass cross stick. Amir Thompson of course. Questlove, commonly known as drums. Production input all over this record.
00:16:54:11 - 00:17:01:12
Unknown
We were the band from.
00:17:01:14 - 00:17:24:19
Unknown
Okay, so this almost choir like layering of D'Angelo's voice, you're going to hear throughout the record some of the genius. I think that really connects to the musicality of this, this album. Very talking bookish. Yeah, actually. Right.
00:17:24:21 - 00:17:31:19
Unknown
You know Palladino, Pino Palladino on bass.
00:17:31:21 - 00:17:44:02
Unknown
Who's. I mean, the syncopation, of course. The laid back, the offset.
00:17:44:04 - 00:18:12:11
Unknown
With my two sax control, you get to take my range. You, my head and pressure my right leg. Yeah, like, bro. And take off. How does this crew feel to you? I mean, for me, it feels pretty awesome. It feels awesome. You know, we know it's still startling how behind the beat some of those circles. Right. Lay back.
00:18:12:16 - 00:18:45:18
Unknown
Yeah. And we're going to talk about it. I have actually mirror talking about the some about how that came about. Obviously the J Dilla influence is huge on this record, although he's not listed anywhere on the liner notes or anything famously. But, with that interpretation, shift your back. Yeah, a Dexter Gordon ish. Yeah. But if you think about like if Pino was right there at the beat and then Questlove is maybe just he's a little bit behind, and then D'Angelo's much behind it, you know, sometimes, sometimes floating way behind sometimes.
00:18:45:20 - 00:18:52:18
Unknown
Yeah. On it. That guitar. The guitar is, Dino Campbell.
00:18:52:20 - 00:19:23:04
Unknown
But I think Pino and, Amir's hook up on this is great play. We di to say. Oh, wow. Looks like it means okay, all. Oh my God. Move time. Drama. I mean, can you understand one word that, No. Okay. Can I say no? But, you know, to me, the this one of the striking things is, is from the opening track.
00:19:23:04 - 00:19:43:20
Unknown
I think all of the hallmarks of voodoo are here. Yeah. What we're going to hear for the rest, which is there's such a distinct sound between Pino Palladino and Questlove. Yes. 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. Sound. Right? Right.
00:19:43:20 - 00:20:09:18
Unknown
That's right. And it's one of the more distinctive drum and bass hook ups, I think, in music history. Yes. Yeah, it's it's fantastic. You play that sound and you're like, that's voodoo. Exactly. And it was so influential on so many. I mean, when this came out, even though again, like if we look at maybe J Dilla, the great Detroit producer, drum on the MPC, you know, you know, just force of nature.
00:20:09:20 - 00:20:30:06
Unknown
He, really kind of conceptualized this and had demonstrated this and had 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 layer, but everything else was played live.
00:20:30:06 - 00:20:45:12
Unknown
Yeah, very like organic in the studio. You've talked about the cross stitch. You know, the Questlove is there's almost no snare drum on. I mean actual like snare drum on this record has so much crossing. In fact, when the snare comes on, it's kind of stomach. I mean, when you're crosstalk sounds that great. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
00:20:45:15 - 00:21:12:19
Unknown
But for those of 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 D'Angelo and I started the voodoo record, which was like mid 96, that was the hardest thing ever, because he constantly.
00:21:12:21 - 00:21:25:18
Unknown
Like, he wanted me to drag the beat, but then he drag the beat behind me. And so now I got to program my mind to think, okay, this is the metronome.
00:21:25:20 - 00:21:39:14
Unknown
And now he wants me to play.
00:21:39:16 - 00:22:02:09
Unknown
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, trust me, like, use the force that's he's using all these Star Wars analogies with me, like amazing with me. And I've never seen Star Wars. So. Yeah. So that's kind of, you know, where that came from.
00:22:02:09 - 00:22:20:11
Unknown
There was definitely some tension. This took several years like to go through this. And then I think Pino Palladino was really so are the connector because he would bridge that like between the actual time in 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.
00:22:20:13 - 00:22:50:04
Unknown
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, what peanut 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 ten years that we started to, in at least popular black American music, started to weave out of sort of the Dilla beat style.
00:22:50:04 - 00:23:07:17
Unknown
Yeah, 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. Yeah, slightly, but I guess behind it where we are in history. Right. But now you can always look back at it. Yeah. And this album is definitely one of the like, oh this can be very, very popular.
00:23:07:18 - 00:23:26:21
Unknown
Yeah. Just sort of like the drag time beat. And then it would take over. Yeah. A lot of styles of music from here on out. Yeah. For like 10 or 15 years. Yeah. And the thing is it's not on every track on here. So acutely. Yeah. You know, it kind of comes and goes and I think it's very, I think it's been exaggerated that like all they're, everybody's always playing by.
00:23:26:22 - 00:23:48:00
Unknown
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 got like everything was tied to the grid digital.
00:23:48:00 - 00:24:01:20
Unknown
This whole record was recorded analog. Yeah, like to tape at a time when like ProTools was. It's a comment back on the on computers that had taken over and the drum machines that have taken over. Yeah. Like we're going to and it's so funny because it all comes out of J Dilla who was using. Yeah, exactly in this way.
00:24:01:20 - 00:24:23:20
Unknown
But it's if you want proof of the sort of ubiquitous ness of this beat, next time you're on a gig with any millennial drummer, just shout Dilla, beat. Yeah, watch. Exactly, because they can all do it and they get all this weird look, you know, change their posture. They can all do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I mean, I think too, like there's it's interesting you say about the Dilla being on the, on the machine.
00:24:23:22 - 00:24:40:15
Unknown
Questlove he sounds there's parts of this that he's playing so specific and like no feels or anything in exactly the same 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.
00:24:40:15 - 00:25:09:01
Unknown
So I mean, I'm not surprised at all. He's the drummer for The Roots, right? Exactly what he does. Oh he's incredible. And obviously there's no click track or anything. But, the grid is there, but it's like, yeah, they're dancing all around it. Okay. So once so basically I think D'Angelo 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.
00:25:09:03 - 00:25:28:07
Unknown
So him and Questlove were already connected and some other folks, and, actually, Charlie Hunter, we're going to get to Charlie Hunter. Huge influence of Charlie Hunter. It already recorded some stuff with them where he was playing bass and guitar. But around that time there was a B.B. King record, and this was kind of one of these records.
00:25:28:07 - 00:25:48:16
Unknown
This one, B.B. was kind of having one of his big revivals, and they had a bunch of different guests, and D'Angelo was going to be guesting on one track. And, Pino Palladino, bassist from, where are you from? If you're from, if you're Welsh, Wales, Wales. There you go. I'll try. I was like, he's from Welsh, you know, he is Welsh.
00:25:48:19 - 00:26:13:01
Unknown
He's all of our Welsh legendary basis. There wasn't like super well known but I mean he was like a session cat and played with some also 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 the B.B. King session. And apparently when D'Angelo got there and before B.B. King came in, he kind of when I was the piano was playing like some Marvin Gaye stuff or whatever, and people started playing with him, and D'Angelo was like.
00:26:13:04 - 00:26:31:22
Unknown
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 let's hear people talk about it, actually. But, you know, that there was a media connection as soon as we literally the second verse of that song where he took the lead and he was playing, I think he's playing piano and took the lead.
00:26:31:23 - 00:26:54:22
Unknown
Yeah. And he took the lead and I'm playing and I'm like, he sounds so good. And he kind of informed me, you know, like, all of a sudden I was like, man, I can do. Yeah, I just went for some shit, you know, hearing his voice inspire me to try some Jamison style. You know, walking around a little bit more, playing some busy, busy bass stuff and, and, and I felt him react to that immediately.
00:26:55:00 - 00:27:24:12
Unknown
Something happened on that tune, but that was B.B. King, too. Wow. You know, B.B. made that happen. So here's the track. Don't put this in a bullet hole. This is going into the second verse with the envelope and opening up, and it's, two and I beg you to come home and put your trust in me and send the let me alone.
00:27:24:13 - 00:27:42:12
Unknown
You've been burned to death. So you start to go down. I let me to forgive you on this time. Shoot on the page. Be.
00:27:42:13 - 00:28:01:02
Unknown
Open. It's actually great to hear D'Angelo on such a straight ahead. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is really awesome. Like to hear him on. First of all, I'm such a sucker for those slickly produced yes, artist legend at the end of their career, making an album with a bunch of young starts, I. I dig it every time. I like it so much.
00:28:01:05 - 00:28:27:02
Unknown
But to hear D'Angelo with like, a slickly produced session musician. Heavy. Yeah, that's very fun. Yeah. That's great, that's great. Great. So that was 97. That came out 97. I think they recorded 97 too. So that's where Pino and D'Angelo first connected and then D'Angelo 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.
00:28:27:02 - 00:28:43:12
Unknown
Or do we want to jump in that already? Let's jump in. Let's jump in already I like it, look at that. 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 ambient guitarist. But he's, he was playing an eight string.
00:28:43:12 - 00:28:57:05
Unknown
I think he's a seven string now. I've seen him play seven string, but he's playing eight string then, which is like, basically it's a bass and a guitar. Yeah. And he's playing with his thumb. It's the bass parts. And what a guitarist. He's doing two jobs. It's especially you're getting you're getting two musicians for the price of one with him.
00:28:57:05 - 00:29:18:17
Unknown
And he's by far one of the greatest in the world at that. Yeah. Truly like special, special person. Yeah. And so how D'Angelo 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 should be a cable station, you know, a cable is, you remember cable.
00:29:18:19 - 00:29:35:14
Unknown
Okay. Cable station called Bet on Jazz. There was it, of course, which was huge at the time. Yeah, yeah. Talk about 90s R&B. Yeah, yeah. And so they had started this, jazz station battle jazz, and they didn't have a lot of content. And but it was the 24 hour. You had to be 24 hours because it was cable television.
00:29:35:14 - 00:29:51:13
Unknown
Right? Enough jazz. Right. Exactly. Well, because they would only use stuff that was like recorded in their studios in DC. I actually played on a copper mirror. I did a thing with, Mark Whitfield Quartet that they. And but if you went into the studio and did stuff for them, they would play it. Oh, people were like, oh, I saw you on Battle jazz.
00:29:51:13 - 00:30:07:10
Unknown
I saw you again. Oh, I saw you like so many people would see because they would just loop the stuff nice all night long. So Charlie Hunter had done something with his band, and D'Angelo heard him, late at night, watching in the hotel room and was like, oh, man, who is that? And so then he went and got all those records like, listen.
00:30:07:10 - 00:30:21:16
Unknown
And apparently this is how D'Angelo does it when he gets he did the same thing with Roy Hargrove. When you hear something he likes, he just becomes like in a 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.
00:30:21:16 - 00:30:33:01
Unknown
And it's like, man, can you do this? And I heard you do it on this. It's like, I don't know. He's like, no, no, no, you played it in the fourth bar, that thing on your record. And no, it doesn't surprise me that the guy that takes eight years, ten years to make an album that's super detailed with this research and everything.
00:30:33:05 - 00:30:52:01
Unknown
Right. So, first I want 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 D'Angelo 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.
00:30:52:01 - 00:31:14:15
Unknown
They said by D'Angelo and Roy Hargrove. Yeah. So Roy definitely had some stuff that he put on. And I know we're going to hear Charlie how to put something on it, but here's D'Angelo, the demo. Okay. I can roll copies showing a roll call Spanish joint. So I would love a joint. I roll called Spanish Joint.
00:31:14:17 - 00:31:30:14
Unknown
I love this, I've heard this before. Minus six f minus six. Oh.
00:31:30:16 - 00:32:06:02
Unknown
I could have put this one on. I know, just like this. It's a good voicings. Wonderful refrains. I feel this way. Amazing little something to get me through this thing. It give me a love that knows I'm playing a game. Well, the good thing I had in me. Feel free. So that's what the vibe was. And then, you know, there's these different sections and stuff.
00:32:06:04 - 00:32:26:06
Unknown
Russ Lovato, who's the engineer? He produced some of these tracks, was a huge influence on this record. Yeah. One of the huge personalities was there with D'Angelo, like all the time. He later went on to produce the RH Factor records with Roy Hargrove, incredible engineer. He's the one who really pushed them to do everything analog, nothing digital, no ProTools and stuff.
00:32:26:08 - 00:32:52:10
Unknown
But this is him talking about how this came about. This man, this joint track. Where did where did Spanish Joint come out on, actually, he had, he'd play 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 and Charlie's last day, he was about to leave, and Andy came up to me and said, you know, is there anything I'm forgetting?
00:32:52:10 - 00:33:12:22
Unknown
Is, is there a song we should try to do? Then I was like, we'll have that Spanish joint, and he's like, Spanish joint. Oh, shit. He played it for for Charlie. And they they did it pretty much. They got, we got the first take as the first take. You here. Within like an hour or something. They kind of put the arrangement together and that was it.
00:33:13:00 - 00:33:33:08
Unknown
It's so funny because it's an we'll play the the Charlie Hunter version. The made the album. Yeah. But hearing that demo. Yeah it's it's major Stevie vibes. Yes. On the demo for sure. Like there's when he, when he comes in with the melody singing the melody that you get a much more Stevie sense of the song, like a Stevie Wonder influence than you do on the, on the one that made the record right, right.
00:33:33:11 - 00:33:57:07
Unknown
And that piano is at Electric Lady Studio, which we should mention. Was it another personality in this record? For sure. Jimi Hendrix's, 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 Stevie recorded. They're talking book. So there's a lot of direct connections with that.
00:33:57:09 - 00:34:24:13
Unknown
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.
00:34:24:15 - 00:34:35:12
Unknown
One thing. Yeah.
00:34:35:14 - 00:34:59:12
Unknown
With the broken brain. Feel the sweet little face on his voice a little something very talking bookish thing. Give me a little bit. You know, that is that snare. I think you sneak in some snare. It's still cross stitch. It. Yeah, yeah, but he you. With all those details you already heard in the demo, that's all there.
00:34:59:13 - 00:35:30:03
Unknown
Yeah. Rush done. No. Roy the Roy chorus. Oh, man. Yeah, yeah, right. Hargrove made everything he was ever on. Better. Yeah by magnitudes. Yeah. Never will be. This bridge. And apparently each of the sections there was no set form. That was just the three sections. And they were tracking it live, you know, in one take, we're gonna listen to some more, some isolation.
00:35:30:05 - 00:35:43:20
Unknown
They were tracking it live. So because Charlie Hunter had talked about like, he's like, I didn't really know when I supposed to go the next part, but D'Angelo would just be like. And then we go to that. Yeah. And so like, he showed him the three parts and then he's like, I'll show you when we go into it.
00:35:43:20 - 00:35:58:17
Unknown
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, some really cool stuff where it feels like it's. And then they, they go up a half, you know, they, they transpose it, they it's cool. Okay. So let's, let's go over to our new secret bespoke system and.
00:35:58:17 - 00:36:15:01
Unknown
Okay, so what you were hearing, what you just heard is like, very it sounds like there's a bass. We'll check this out.
00:36:15:03 - 00:36:42:07
Unknown
So if we listen to just. That's just the guitar part right. And now I'm gonna add in the bass. And then we go to just the bass. But this is all happening on the same. This is all happening on the same at the same time. This is the same. Yeah. So he's doing. Yeah. When you see Charlie Hunter live.
00:36:42:09 - 00:36:59:00
Unknown
Yeah. This isn't even like by far the most impressive stuff you could do when you see him live. He usually has two amps on stage, a bass amp and a guitar amp and two outputs from this guitar. Yeah. Even though it's all right here on the guitar.
00:36:59:02 - 00:37:00:07
Unknown
And then we can add in.
00:37:00:07 - 00:37:22:03
Unknown
It's all you need. Killing drum. Add a little higher drive on top of that. Oh, you on the right.
00:37:22:05 - 00:37:28:04
Unknown
So I added the horn parts after everything else. Track live.
00:37:28:06 - 00:37:31:02
Unknown
And I love this here.
00:37:31:04 - 00:37:51:15
Unknown
Yeah. I mean, and he voice all that stuff out in those open. Of course you did. First of all, Roy is a melodic genius. Yeah, as we both know. But he also you. What you get when you get Roy is you get this like instant arranger as well. Yeah. So good. Like all those little clusters. Yeah. That's not something that most people just here and Roy's here in that stuff so easily and really cool.
00:37:51:16 - 00:38:29:04
Unknown
Nothing. So this is without drums. You in the dark in the light location. Incredible. Voice brushed up. Note up. That way it doesn't have. The counterpoint between the guitar line of Roy Song and the clown. The function seems to be. Yeah. Don't they? Bobo didn't really hear the Virginia. Yeah. Isolate the way. Yeah. I mean, it's got to be that bass line to go.
00:38:29:10 - 00:38:43:16
Unknown
So it's all a joke to me. Oh yeah. I just want to kill him. Yeah, you? Yeah, yeah.
00:38:43:18 - 00:39:06:07
Unknown
What a sound. So. This solo? Yes. Kill. Killing me and the Roy. And if you don't know Charlie, he. He is playing bass and soloing in this. Yes. Yeah, yeah. This is all. Good.
00:39:06:09 - 00:39:28:13
Unknown
So let me just take it back, because this solo I'm gonna give you just, Just Charlie Hunter. Let me just make sure I do this right here. Charlie Hunter and Roy. Because Roy added these horns after. So that one take Charlie Hunter is playing the bass part. He's soloing. Roy puts so much stuff in there, but it just works somehow.
00:39:28:13 - 00:39:34:14
Unknown
Because it's a pretty busy solo, right? Yeah. Check it out.
00:39:34:16 - 00:39:41:13
Unknown
This is just Roy and Charlie.
00:39:41:15 - 00:39:51:14
Unknown
Yeah, but but.
00:39:51:16 - 00:40:00:00
Unknown
Let's kill it. Amazing. And then we always get even more stuff. Who?
00:40:00:02 - 00:40:05:10
Unknown
Yeah. Roy's being a part of the rhythm section. He's comping. Yeah.
00:40:05:12 - 00:40:25:17
Unknown
Yeah. It's like he's always like. It's like he's playing the right hand of an organism, right? Right. And then check out this stuff. But he's like, I just want, just want to, that's just Roy D'Angelo and.
00:40:25:19 - 00:40:33:10
Unknown
I think, oh, all that layered voices with the guitar.
00:40:33:12 - 00:41:08:13
Unknown
Oh, I mean, oh, I made that up, too. I, I'm, you know. Yeah. That is healing that way. Yeah. The benefit with you bringing everybody back in, this is where it's kind of unsure what they were going to do.
00:41:08:15 - 00:41:30:21
Unknown
Oh yeah. I mean, it's so funny because the album took so long, the one of the most. That's such a raw, live voodoo dude. Yeah, that's the way he improvises 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.
00:41:30:21 - 00:42:08:20
Unknown
Like, it just sounds like musicians letting what's happening happen. So my favorite music would be. One. Giovanni. He'll go on congas. I should add two as well as the other music. And this is all just like, you know, they didn't know what section they were going to be like. He didn't need one. Yeah. To think or going to look for the other.
00:42:08:22 - 00:42:49:15
Unknown
Hum, hum. Yeah. I don't, I don't. Love that. Oh wait, you incredible. That's the way we always have when we're not sure what's going to happen with this bad. So just check out I just want to play one more part of this with just the vocals because like, D'Angelo is just killing it with this stuff. I know nothing beats you boom, boom, boom boom.
00:42:49:17 - 00:43:11:21
Unknown
Don't you love you? Yeah, that's the way it is. Wow. That's all D'Angelo layered. That's fun. That's a good track. That's a good track. That one. Yeah I like that. Yeah. So that's kind of like, 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, in the meat.
00:43:11:23 - 00:43:27:14
Unknown
And you know, Charlie Hunter, he's on three tracks, and he just really with the bass and the guitar, he just. He brings such a special thing to it. Do 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.
00:43:27:15 - 00:43:48:13
Unknown
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 Sea of Tranquility by cool in the game. And here we here. It's great.
00:43:48:15 - 00:44:25:07
Unknown
Okay. It's a cool in the gang episode having man I know exactly. Now here's D'Angelo different song. And I never would have. Oh that's fantastic. Just standing on. Of course I feel okay Pino on this. This is Pino on this. Make sure. Yeah, yeah. Oh. Killing it. Oh. Okay. I'm in a mirror with the bass drum.
00:44:25:09 - 00:44:35:05
Unknown
Who? Seem to.
00:44:35:07 - 00:44:45:17
Unknown
Seem to do silky to.
00:44:45:19 - 00:44:57:00
Unknown
Open you. Oh, man. Some man that bass drum and that bass. Oh.
00:44:57:02 - 00:45:24:18
Unknown
You good? See, this is a the grid. But it's not stuck on the grid either. I think you some. Maybe a little, but it's natural, right? Yeah. This is, this feels pretty straightforward. Man. I love these three lines. This is right playing flugelhorn mostly on this TV. And the bass in an old man and then some. More like that.
00:45:24:20 - 00:45:54:15
Unknown
And I want to just jump a little bit towards the end because there's some fun stuff with Roy. You know this is getting towards the end. Maybe you can send it off to the of your acrostic. Acrostic is King on this one is Pino starts to stretch out a bit. D'Angelo the.
00:45:54:16 - 00:46:06:15
Unknown
Sometimes it's not to say oh. You.
00:46:06:16 - 00:46:28:02
Unknown
Me a lot of vamps on this record, and I like them. To do some took some time. We don't know what else to say. We know it's it's like a little different each time he's going to hit a harmonic in a second. That's going to be.
00:46:28:04 - 00:47:08:00
Unknown
And that's all right. That's all. Who who's. Hey hey. You know you a baby? No, we gotta get on. Oh, you. Oh, you. Oh. Who brought what for the blues. Me. What I do, you need. Oh, man. Just let them play. You, man. It's such a vibe. Let them play. And I mean, you know, D'Angelo set this whole thing up.
00:47:08:00 - 00:47:29:23
Unknown
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, to create the platter for the Secretary of Soul. I mean, it's just just incredible. 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.
00:47:30:05 - 00:47:49:08
Unknown
But, like, together at that stuff. But we do, 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 it just feel right, you know? I know, Peter, I know we're not in flex categories yet, but, we're down. Sorry.
00:47:49:10 - 00:48:09:06
Unknown
I know we're not in categories yet, but I have a flex category, okay, that I want to throw out. Yeah. You're right. There is a song in this album. Yeah, 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.
00:48:09:06 - 00:48:22:13
Unknown
And I love the original. Don't get me wrong, is the original 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 doing too? Well, we have it on the Roberta Flack episode. Oh, no, I got it right here.
00:48:22:13 - 00:48:35:20
Unknown
Yeah. Sorry. Oh, that guy you like. You've already done that out. Oh. Feel like making love? Yeah. We got it here. Yeah. So if that's the I mean, that's a credible version of Roberta, but this is a great this is a I think this is a better version of the song. I go back to this one again and again and again.
00:48:35:20 - 00:48:40:15
Unknown
I probably listen to this once a month.
00:48:40:17 - 00:49:08:22
Unknown
Then we got some snap. Oh no, we still crossed. I think both. I think they're 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 D'Angelo. It's just, come on. But it's got a connection to that original, right?
00:49:09:00 - 00:49:21:10
Unknown
All those, like, little envelope filters that are happening. Yeah. Ross Lovato, bad, bad boy, good name.
00:49:21:11 - 00:49:35:13
Unknown
Right here. Precious birth. Perfect name for me. Cuba.
00:49:35:15 - 00:50:05:09
Unknown
And I think he come to bed, disclose vocal like his intonation and his ingenuity. That combination of them. Man. Go home sweet. And the harmonies through here. The vibe of this man more than 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.
00:50:05:10 - 00:50:29:20
Unknown
But company, and I think because of the way Amir is playing, sexy is very sexy. Boy, Amir is playing like it gives Pino the chance to, like, do all this interesting. Like baby Boom. And D'Angelo'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, like wild.
00:50:30:01 - 00:50:54:05
Unknown
It's that's why you can't understand anything he's saying. I know these words because of Roberta. Feel it was that they called it. You. Is bad. Okay. We can just sit here, listen to this all day. I'm saying that you want to go for drinks together. Just listen to this all day. Crazy. So good. In the liner notes, whoever wrote the letters described.
00:50:54:07 - 00:51:12:08
Unknown
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. Described as D'Angelo as Bobby McFerrin 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.
00:51:12:08 - 00:51:32:22
Unknown
Yeah. This is really 96, 97, 98, 99. Right? This is his first record. Well, we didn't listen to Brown Sugar. No, this is 95. But you hear the drums now we're on the grid, right? Killing off.
00:51:33:00 - 00:52:00:06
Unknown
I love this, this is killing. Your mother. Such a deep bass on this one. Yeah. D'Angelo likes the bass. Yeah, he likes it. And I mean that in the mix. Like he likes a low end, heavy, low mid heavy mix. I don't think I'm even looking all of them then. But in terms of like, the keys. And that's a bit of a, a bunch of them.
00:52:00:08 - 00:52:14:07
Unknown
You know the way he would layer his voice. Single one to the. Yeah, that's kind of the vibe of that. But that's how different like, hey, the evolution from this, the voodoo is big, voodoo is a little bit, I think a little bit better. It's like the sounding album, like it's like he, he's, he hit his stride with voodoo, like.
00:52:14:07 - 00:52:38:22
Unknown
Yeah, he took whatever. I mean, Brown Sugar is amazing, but I think he learned probably learned some stuff from that. And man, we are all benefiting from the results of that. Yeah. Okay. And so one connector besides D'Angelo from that, especially that track that's written by, or co-written by Raphael Saadiq. Yeah. Who's going to have an influence on a track that we're gonna listen to shortly?
00:52:39:00 - 00:53:00:20
Unknown
Underrated musician Raphael Saadiq. Oh, Tony. Tony, Tony. Yeah. And of his own incredible solo career. But is behind a lot of your favorite tracks? Absolutely. Yeah. And also really connected with D'Angelo 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 and said, I think you guys would hit it off.
00:53:00:22 - 00:53:21:02
Unknown
And they bonded over Hawkins Family Records, how they had like an encyclopedic knowledge and Raphael's older kind of almost like half generation. Oh yeah, I guess he's like eight, nine, ten years older than him, but like, they really like bonded on that. You hear deeply in their music, in the way that they would put stuff together. But before we get to that, of course, we talk about how does it feel?
00:53:21:04 - 00:53:44:21
Unknown
I'm thinking a little chicken grease might be a, you know, actually, since you mentioned Raphael Saadiq. Yeah. In Brown Sugar, if this, this voodoo, this Tony, Tony, Tony. Like a kind of a precursor to this, I think so, yeah. I think that there's a lot I think, I mean, that's definitely like part of that 90s R&B sound, but like, that's a I think there's a little more on this side of the fence than, than the others, you know for sure.
00:53:44:22 - 00:54:02:20
Unknown
Like there's a little bit more, there's more gospel, there's a little bit more gospel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But also like there's, you know, Triple Quest. We got to talk about that. We gotta 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, second track on this, Joshua Redman, Joshua Redman.
00:54:02:20 - 00:54:22:14
Unknown
Exactly. DJ Premier produce 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 what kind of 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.
00:54:22:14 - 00:54:40:08
Unknown
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.
00:54:40:10 - 00:55:08:16
Unknown
Brown Sugar came out in 95. He went on tour immediately and with his band, which was a Killen 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 song, you already hear. Oh. I.
00:55:08:18 - 00:55:21:08
Unknown
Who's. That's a snare.
00:55:21:10 - 00:55:47:20
Unknown
Crew on this guy. Maybe I've a better friend. So this is a great, great record. A lot of, like, extended cuts, improv, 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. So 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.
00:55:47:20 - 00:56:08:00
Unknown
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 one when I remember, I know the singles were because I was just listening to the whole album all year long. Right?
00:56:12:04 - 00:56:44:11
Unknown
James. Poison. Poison on keys. Shout out! Yeah! One of the, incredible from the roots. Incredible musician to make me forget about me. Everybody is there. But the rhythmic stuff the D'Angelo was doing a few. The big, the lyrics, you understand what's happening, right? The story he's telling. Don't be a time. Chicken off. Do what you want.
00:56:44:13 - 00:57:05:09
Unknown
But he's almost doing some of that Dizzy Gillespie shit. Just beat the, oh, I know, get a bigger. I just I just connect with the title chicken grease so much. Yeah. Just means so much to the chicken freak. Yeah, apparently, I was a prince. Term. There was a chord that he called. It was close to this.
00:57:05:09 - 00:57:26:15
Unknown
It wasn't exactly what they're playing on guitar. He's like, give me the chicken grease, but not the key. See, I'm like, I don't fucking know, Crystal. No, Travis. Crisco. You said the like. But it's like the rhythmic thing. It's almost like a hip hop look. The uncle took the buttermilk bottle was the, I mean, triple quest, big influence.
00:57:26:15 - 00:57:57:07
Unknown
Did you hear that? Like, they didn't know how to jam. But check this out. Just listen rhythmically. Yeah. You don't. Come on. Oh, I just want to point that. Yeah, I just want y'all to get that. Yeah. If I had to come late that night, I think we, Yeah, that's, it.
00:57:57:09 - 00:58:25:19
Unknown
Spoke to the song and then check it out when he comes back in. It's so great. It's great. People want to come down in the back, but they don't. Let's go with, it be. It is like in the boat, you should mention, but take a letter from the back to the person who says after. Thank you. I got the music and the instruments and my weapons.
00:58:25:21 - 00:58:32:21
Unknown
In the body, you know that the can make me happy.
00:58:32:23 - 00:59:01:04
Unknown
But it's not feel. It's just the hands on piano. Of course. I just want to put you down. Yeah, I just want y'all to get down. Yeah. Everybody come down. Oh, oh is fine. You got me. Yeah. 0000, that's absolutely right. Put together pretty good, Yeah. My old millennial heart, just shines through with that. Not a millennial.
00:59:01:06 - 00:59:19:19
Unknown
Okay. All right. We know. We know what you've done. You're like, it's not even sound right. I got to do it. All right. Are we there? How does it feel to you? It feels. I'm the chicken greases. I'm hung up on the chicken grease because I am. I am an older millennial, and it's not good for my cholesterol.
00:59:19:21 - 00:59:39:05
Unknown
And I'm catching me up because I want it. All right. This was a really important track notwithstanding. Or withstanding the video, the stellar video. Because 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.
00:59:39:09 - 00:59:56:12
Unknown
Did he have any reference? He knew the he knew the record of it. He'd never seen the video. And so I was like, you gotta check out this video. And he saw it. He was like, wait, is that our Kelly? That was the first thing he's really oh, anyway, I mean, this was on VH1 for like every day, ten times a day for like a year and a half, right?
00:59:56:14 - 01:00:15:20
Unknown
Especially when the what's the hours when the ladies are more likely to watch? It's a stunning thing. I mean, it's it's an amazing video. One of the most iconic, music videos of all time. This is one of the controversial in that it was was it sexually exploitive? We didn't know, but it was, it was very, very interesting.
01:00:15:22 - 01:00:37:04
Unknown
But this is such a great track. So we talked about Raphael Saadiq this is was this written? Yeah, it was written by D'Angelo and Raphael Saadiq. And Raphael Saadiq played guitar and bass on here. Awesome. And produced the thing. And, you know, so it's just damn D'Angelo, quest or the Questlove on drums. And I love the way this track starts.
01:00:37:04 - 01:01:01:18
Unknown
It starts. I mean, I actually 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. And it was just the vibe and it and, you know, like, what are you talking about? The way you're describing it, you heard about the song where you had the song.
01:01:01:23 - 01:01:22:19
Unknown
Okay. Yeah. Okay. But, you know, 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 this great sound system in this, like, loungy atmosphere place. And I'll just never forget getting hit in the chest by the production on this.
01:01:22:20 - 01:01:56:21
Unknown
Oh, and will hit you in the eye. I was like, I just couldn't stop being distracted by the song and and what was going on. It's so good, so good. Let's just check it out and just pay attention the way this starts. Because I don't know if they 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.
01:01:56:22 - 01:02:15:17
Unknown
Oh. Yeah. This is where the time is kind of. Yeah, sway a little bit.
01:02:15:19 - 01:03:06:18
Unknown
But D'Angelo's that gospel piano. The piano is what bridges it together rhythmically. Me. And it your way. And, the harmony on this great key for D major. That'll help me woo that active. Come on. Everything. And you just, Can't do anything. Maybe. Raphael Saadiq. Incredible to me, man. A b b. Don't you call. This is like four masters just laying it down.
01:03:06:18 - 01:03:36:10
Unknown
Yeah. They all ready to be. I mean, he's just straight up gospel chords right here. It's fairly simple. It's one of the more simple songs on the whole. Very simple. You may and it's one of the most is harmonically simple but super interesting. Starting on like. K back fake 25I mean back four, two five.
01:03:36:12 - 01:04:03:22
Unknown
And it's like two to the four chord doesn't turn up to seven. Most of the time. You know. Seven. No. Okay. All right. We're going to jump up to. What are you doing? Sorry. What do you say? Sorry, man. You got to quick. I just got it. Yeah, I just got away. I thought you did this before.
01:04:03:23 - 01:04:36:08
Unknown
Oh, man. Let me let me try. Oh, did you hear that? You let. Oh, cool. Prince Prince's hands. His little hands are all over this. Prince's all over this track, for sure. Especially that guitar. Okay, we. Can we go. Oh, let's get going. No, no, no, because there's some there's some apex moments all the time. My my apex moment is when it goes to the bridge, which is like, what is it like four minutes into this?
01:04:36:10 - 01:04:52:06
Unknown
Which to me is incredible that they waited that long. And that's maybe. Let's get to your desert island track, which is this. Yeah, right. This is your desert island now. Spanish, right? We are Spanish right now, but let's just keep playing it so we get to the bridge, because some people may be like, well, the bridge is just whatever.
01:04:52:06 - 01:05:09:03
Unknown
But when you hear it building up across your mouth, it's just powerful. Go, baby. Oh, come on, fair play.
01:05:09:05 - 01:05:41:17
Unknown
I mean vocal background, counter melody, masterclass, all over this track. I mean, from the anthem does it. You will learn how to harmonize on the bass as well. Yeah. Bass guitar. Yeah, yeah, I thought this is Pino now I know everybody done bridges. Yeah. Don't do all types. I mean, wow, I feel kind of blown away by that.
01:05:41:20 - 01:06:17:10
Unknown
It's been on my mind. Oh, baby, cause the dome isn't going down. It's a great bridge. Music interlude. When you go, you go down. Oh. Goes down to. Oh, oh man that form. Yeah. So patient. Oh maybe that's why that's my, my apex. Because you want me to go through that. You don't even need that. And then this also the whole the entire vocal performance there's like six of these guys.
01:06:17:16 - 01:06:42:07
Unknown
Yeah. They're all the answer though. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You feel the presence of Prince on this and then all this vicious chill for a minute? Yeah.
01:06:42:09 - 01:06:54:14
Unknown
I mean, you're just the discipline, the sound. Oh and you know.
01:07:02:10 - 01:07:11:01
Unknown
Oh. I'm around. Oh, love.
01:07:11:03 - 01:07:22:09
Unknown
Come to find. Okay.
01:07:22:11 - 01:07:55:19
Unknown
So my apex 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 all the. It's like you're going from A minor to G minor key minor to see here. Hey I got this right. Yeah I can I can get stuck I know I can and then do all that.
01:07:55:21 - 01:08:05:19
Unknown
Yeah. I'ma take off your coat. So now that's a Prince chord. That's pretty cool. It's very pretty.
01:08:05:21 - 01:08:10:04
Unknown
Damn good.
01:08:10:06 - 01:08:49:03
Unknown
I'm gonna take you. Oh, wait. Oh, I can't take you on a little trip. I. I'm not gonna be. All the time is, like, tightened up just a little bit, right? Appropriately so. Do you remember la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la in la. Now I'm gonna be fine. Yeah.
01:08:49:05 - 01:09:12:09
Unknown
And then I see one of the great moments. Damn it. Okay. And that cut off because they ran out of tape. You're kidding. No, that's exactly what happened. That was the tape. Was the tape. This was all Russell Lovato, the engineer insisted on this all being done on analog digital process because he love the sound. I know I'm gonna get audio engineer nerds being like, it doesn't make a difference.
01:09:12:09 - 01:09:27:14
Unknown
It makes it. 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, $300 per reel. Well, 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 is songs that could be more than seven minutes.
01:09:27:14 - 01:09:42:10
Unknown
But they got to vamping. They got to doing 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 realized, Peter, I don't think it's my I don't think it's my desert island because you have it down as your desert island.
01:09:42:10 - 01:09:57:05
Unknown
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 meters Africa a little better. What about Toto's Africa? Do you enjoy that? I like that one too. Good. This one's better. Actually, the is better than both of those songs written after continents.
01:09:57:05 - 01:10:13:12
Unknown
But I think actually the cover of Feel Like Making Love is my favorite. That's so good. It's a disaster for me. What about up Next? What do you got after this ends on your music streaming service? Well, I've got live at jazz live at the London Jazz Cafe. Just because even though that's before it's. I think it's such a cool record.
01:10:13:12 - 01:10:29:02
Unknown
And once I get into the D'Angelo mode, I want to say that. And then also the RH factor, Roy Hargrove, which was inspired from this. He recorded it right after voodoo came out. Same, Russell Lovato co-producing. Good and a lot of the same kind of vibe and has that same Roy Hargrove stamp that you hear all over this
01:10:29:02 - 01:16:39:07
