Frenchy’s Fracas

Lovely bass-player and all-round musician extraordinaire, Meshell Ndegeocello, got some great live tracks on myspace.com Have a listen!

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General Description
Artist/Band: RH Factor (Roy Hargrove)
Album Title: Hard Groove
Year: 2003

I’m sooooo slow on the uptake..
 
How I Got Into This Music
I didn’t.. Ehm.. Gotta be honest, I didn’t get into this music after a coupla tries and for quite a while I didn’t think much of it. First time I looked this album up, was after I heard Roy Hargrove play on the Think Twice version on Erykah Badu’s Worldwide Underground album. I found this Hard Groove album, and it just wasn’t working for me.
Then I got a chance to see him perform live at the North Sea Jazz Festival this year and again, it didn’t click - I was kinda underwhelmed. Last month I thought about the album again and I gave the album another listen. Hmmm.. Huh?

Album info at Answers.com || Album review at artistsdirect.com

Tracks that got my attention:
Hardgroove
Title track. Haunting movie score music, with Pino Palladino doing the nasty on bass

Common Free Style ft Common
One of the more balanced and dedicated rappers in the business doing an ok freestyling performance

I’ll Stay ft D’Angelo
Bass line reminds me of Quincy Jones, heh.. The vocals? First coupla times I heard this track, I thought someone was ripping of D’Angelo, but I was wrong: it’s the Man Himself! That guy’s incredible, even though the track\’s not that strong

Pastor T
Funky, jazzy instrumental

Poetry ft Q-Tip, Erykah Badu and Meshell Ndegeocello
This is the song that convinced me that this album’s worth paying attention too.. The recipe: add one of my favorite rappers, mix my all-time favorite bass player in it and add just a splash of a great soul diva - the result? Wow.. Wow.. Wow..
Love Badu’s chant!

The Joint
Powerful instrumental, Roy Hargrove’s horn is doing its subtle work

Forget Regret ft Stephanie McKay
Brittle yet strong vocals by a great singer. And that horn section, yummy!

Liquid Streets
Very smooth and lovely atmosphere

Kwah/Home ft Anthony Hamilton
Weird setup: starts out as one type of song and switches to another one after sixty seconds. And after two minutes, another setup all over again. All are ok by the way..

How I Know ft Shelby Johnson
This song.. Ohwow.. It’s such a simple song, but I’ve been dreaming about this song since I started paying attention to it. Can you imagine falling with a woman just by hearing her sing? Possible. Without even knowing how she looks? In this TV era, not likely, but it sure as hell happened to me
This track makes many a grumpy-grey rainy day make way for a smiling sunshine kinda day.

Conclusion
Still can’t understand how I neglected my duties: should’ve picked up on the quality of the album the first time I heard it. But hey, I screw up sometimes, heheh..
Roy Hargrove’s adventure into more mainstream sounds of funk, soul and Real R&B is a successful one. The more jazzy instrumental pieces allow new listeners to get a taste of that side of the musical spectrum.
The collaboration is what stands out on this album: great musicians making great music.

Rating: (better friggin’ late than never..)

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General Description
Artist/Band: Meshell Ndegeocello (1, 2, 3)
Album Title: Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape
Year: 2002

Abstract mind, concrete soul, tender heart, free my mind..
 
How I Got Into This Music
Trying to stir those old grey cells into action.. Hmm.. First time I heard of her was about 10 years or so when I saw the video “If That’s Your Boyfriend” and soon after that her version of the Bill Withers classic “Who Is He And What Is He To You”. I was curious about the woman standing strong in the center of attention while looking almost fragile: Meshell Ndegeocello. I discovered she was a bassist when she appeared in that video with John Mellencamp, wowee..
Still, when I heard the “Plantation Lullabies” album, I couldn’t get into it, and I lost intrest, my loss for sure. Then a coupla years later a colleague of mine brought the same album with him to work and we played it for days and days without getting bored: how could I not be intrested the first time around?!? Faulty wiring, I gues..
After that, I bought every single album of this lady. One of those was the long awaited “Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape”, so here we go..

Album credits at ArtistsDirect.com
|| Lyrics at FreeMyHeart.com

Tracks that got my attention:
(well, all of them actually, but still..)

Dead Nigga Blvd., Pt. 1
Some tracks are like destined to be the ideal opening track for an album. This is one of them. Opening lyrics:
you sell your soul like you sell a piece of ass

And she goes on with her words hitting its target perfectly and without mercy:
you try to hold on to some africa of the past
one must remember it’s other africans that helped enslave your ass

Ouch!!
Listen to the beat, the tempo, the bass(!!!!), the vocals, damn!

Hot Night
A Puerto Rican type of salsa mixed with vocal samples of Angela Davis? In case you wondered if Lady Meshell was getting less in-your-face about her social-political stuff: ya blind, baby..

Interlude: Blah Blah Blah, Dyba Dyba Dyba
Yes, a 40 second interlude is worth a review - great loops and beats - Meshell purring like a cute but hungry tiger that just caught sight of her prey..

Priorities 1-6
i ain’t gonna pay your rent
cuz all i’ve got is Love
and time to spend
can i hang with you?
Man!! One of the funkiest, grooviest and nastiest bedroom songs ever produced on the face of the earth! I get this chill of excitement and other stuff when I just close my eyes and let the vocals and the beats fill my mind..

Pocketbook
That bass loop reminds me of “Come Together” from the Beatles, but that’s just my little twisted mind, I guess..
Well, it’s Meshell taking care of business.

Barry Farms
I can not ever forget the first time I heard this song! I was at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague where she performed in one of the bigger venues. And what almost made me roll on the ground laughing was the pay-off line.. Go listen for yourself!
Pure Go-Go Music groove in a very slow and sultry manner.. And that bass solo!!!! Momma grooves mightily, indeed: you can wake me up anytime to listen to that great piece of music..
she couldn’t Love me without shame
she only wanted me for one thing
but you can teach your boy to do that

Trust
Now we arrive at the Caron Wheeler part of the album: YES!! This lady’s voice most people will recognize as the voice behind the first coupla hits of Soul II Soul. She kinda disappeared for a while, but I was very happy to discover her talented voice on the Scritti Politti album “Anomie & Bonhomie“. Meshell also did some vocals and bass on that album, so I guess they enjoyed the collaboration!
Trivia should be my middle name..
The track? Sensual, erotic, romantic, beautiful and that’s just Meshell doing the lyrics.. Caron Wheeler adds so much depth and warmth to the song, thank you very, very much! Also love the ending, keeping me hooked for more..

Akel Dama (Field of Blood)
What can I say? Read the goddamn lyrics.. I’ll not pretend to know what went in Meshell’s head when she made this song. It’s poetry by inspirational people like Gil Scott-Heron. A clear and present heartbeat sets an anxious but also soothing tone to the track and her lyrics? Well..
but if one is to truly be born again
you would have to gouge out your eyes,
cut out your tongue, and grieve
and cry like a baby that’s been snatched away
This track doesn’t rank in my Top Whatever Favorite Tracks: it’s much, much more..

Earth
The beat.. incredible! And the harmonica floating around the song, love it!
But what really, really breaks my heart and/or fills it with joy is Caron Wheeler’s vocals (I’m guessing it’s her) half way the track..

Better By the Pound
Did I mention I was happy with Miss Wheeler’s vocals on this album? Probably not, heheh.. Her background/foreground vocals mixed with Meshell basso voce work perfectly. Nice and easy bass lines too.

Criterion
Cool Jazz and Warm Vocals

GOD.FEAR.MONEY
Nasty funk and subtle lyrics:
the devil would have a great apartment on the upper east side
be a guest v.j. on total request live

Jabril
Marcus Miller and Meshell, together again.. Nuff said!

Dead Nigga Blvd., Pt. 2
great reprise

Interlude: 6 Legged Griot Trio (Weariness)
Another great stage for poetry: here’s the text of Etheridge Knight’s poem.

Pocketbook (Rockwilder and Missy Elliot Remix)
Oh well..

Conclusion
It’s been a while since I played this album and while looking for some CD’s to play in my car, I came accross this one again.. Dangerous driving: singing along, swinging and grooving behind the wheel, cops too scared to pull me over, heheh..
You might have understood from my review that I seriously enjoy this album, but just to recap: LOVE IT!! Go and buy it and if ever you get a chance to see this beautifully complex and interesting person perform live on stage: DO IT!!
perhaps to be free
is to all love those who hate me
and die a beautiful death
and make pretty brown babies
Nuff said..

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General Description
Artist/Band: Scritti Politti
Album Title: Anomie & Bonhomie
Year: 1999

How I Got Into This Music
Check out this guy’s history here. It’s been a while but somewhere in the 80’s, oh.. let’s say 1985 - a song took over my musical world by storm: ‘Absolute’, from the Cupid & Psyche ‘85 album. I never heard such thunderous and funky music being performed, especially by some white guy with a sweet falsetto voice.
Green Gartside’s project Scritti Politti was something fresh and something fantastic.
So then after some great hits and new albums, Scritti disappears from my view. I always kept going back to that album for something special. Then suddenly, in 1999 the Anomie & Bonhomie album’s out. Guess who was a very happy, happy puppy..
Tracks that got my attention:

Umm
Anticipation can be such a cruel mistress.. When I first heard this I was totally.. totally unimpressed.. I loved the fact that me girl Me’shell was on the track/album but it took me quite a number of times of listening before I really got the right vibe - now, it’s a righteous track! (Gotta check if me girl was playing the bass on this specific song..)

Tinsel Town to the Boogiedown
This was the first and only single release I saw on TV. It’s a classic: crazy bass grooves, nasty roughneck raps by Lee Majors and Mos Def and the strangely effective voice of Gartside.
Check the crazy-ass sample on the background..

First Goodbye
Another one that threw me off base.. I was like “OK.. broad-minded approach is needed here..”
But it kept on bugging me that the bottom line of the track was way too sweet for my taste. Over the years I’ve learned to like it, but still easily skippable sometimes..

Die Alone
For sure Me’shell’s doing the bass on this one and her sassy vocals rock!

Mystic Handyman
Hmmm… easylistening reggae? Kinda works!

Smith ‘N’ Slappy
Another excellent Mos Def appearance with a groove that gets you in the right mood for anything!

Born to Be
OK, this track really pushed my limits.. It can still get on my nerves.. It’s so incredibly sweet that your teeth just up and go at the sound of the first coupla notes Green sings..
Still..

World You Understand (Is over+Over+Over)
Me’shell - nuff said!!
Wait, just a bit more: this song takes you all over and over and over the place - funky bass - rock guitars - Green’s multi-track vocals.. Weird, but it gets the job done quite nicely

Here Come July
Again, a weird track with a weird tempo setup, ready to make any listener grab for the valium by the bucket.
This track also took me some time to get used to and now I catch myself sometimes humming the tune.. Strange.. Very strange..

Prince Among Men
Wow! Wow! Excellent power track with great rap by Lee Majors (guessing here..)!! I really don’t understand how he sets this up: the funk bass with rock guitars are back and accompanied by one of the sweetest chorus/vocals by Green. Why does this track rock my world?!? I’m not complaining, mind you, but it’s annoying not to know.. Sorry..

Brushed With Oil, Dusted with Powder
This is what I would typically call a “Wait for it.. Wait for it..” track: the whole song’s great but it’s the bass at the end that truely makes me a very happy person.

Conclusion
Well, as you read in my track reviews, it took me quite some time to adjust my mindframe to what’s on this album. Some songs really made me doubt the whole product.
Needless to say, since this is one of my favorites, I got my shit in check and discovered the incredible talent and value of this album. The combo of sweet (falsetto) vocals, lush string arrangements, funky basswork, tight and nasty raps, all add up to what some people would call a postmodern, 20th century fin-de-siècle approach to music, combining street with sweet, combining soft with rugged.
Some people would say that, but I just think it’s one of my favorite albums..

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General Description
Artist/Band: Soundtrack
Album Title: Love Jones
Year: 1997

How I Got Into This Music
So it’s already more than seven years ago.. Wow..
Anyways, a guy I worked with had this CD and it was one of our favorites to play during office time. I never saw the movie, still on my To Do List, I guess..

Tracks that got my attention:

Dionne Farris - “Hopeless”
This one’s one of my favorite “dream away” music. That voice melts down the toughest of souls, incredible! Gotta start checking this lady out for any other goods she’s delivered

Lauryn Hill - “The Sweetest Thing”
Here’s an artist that never impressed me with her talents, other than the incredible beauty she radiates, but that really ain’t enough in my book.. But this song was perfect.

Groove Theory - “Never Enough”
Soulful track, performing great music in a time that crapola R&B ruled

Cassandra Wilson - “You Move Me”
Ooooohh.. on your knees and thank the creator of choice for such a great talent and great track!

Marcus Miller and my girl Me’Shell NdegeOcello - “Rush Over”
Some songs are worth a lifetime of happiness and inspiration and this track’s one of them: crazy jazz/slaphappy/funky bass lines with the incredible dark and luxurious voice of Me’shell - Happy Puppy, me!

BNH - “I Like It”
Brand New Heavies at the peak of their powers - groooovaay..

Kenny Latimore - “Can’t Get Enough”
If you gotta have some smooth R&B to accompany some romantic nastiness, look no further! Shmoooooov..

Duke Ellington and John Coltrane - “In A Sentimental Mood”
Perfect, nuff said..

Conclusion
Soundtracks don’t really work for me but sometimes you come across a gem like this one. Great collection of tracks performed by excellent artists
Doesn’t hurt your brain with existential dread, it just mellows out your day for you. Nothing more, nothing less!

Rating:

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