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Fantastic breezy song from his superb cd "The
Colored Section"
Review: All Music Guide
What a marvelously audacious introduction The
Colored Section is. Emerging from the same Jazz
Café-centered alternative Atlanta soul scene that
nourished and nurtured fellow hippie-soul
singer/songwriters like Joi and India.Arie all the
way into the public consciousness, Donnie's first
LP is a topical, unapologetically conscientious,
and even righteously stinging declaration that,
yes, can only be likened to the classic
sociopolitical masterworks of spiritual heirs
Donny Hathaway and especially Stevie Wonder. Songs
like "Cloud 9" and "Wildlife," in fact, may be too
indebted to genius-era Wonder — the former with
its wah-wah guitar and warm gusts of squelchy
synth vibrato, the latter with its prominent
clavinet and crisp harmonica ad-libs — but are
such stunning vintage impersonations that both
easily could have slipped somewhere onto
Innervisions. No matter from which angle you
choose to approach such a statement, it couldn't
really be taken as a criticism, nor should it be
with The Colored Section. The music is
consistently empowered and empowering: gracefully
buttery, always deeply moving, and at its core
profoundly idealistic. Generous melodies abound,
rising from a gospel-derived groundwork, spun
around street-tinged jazz rhythms, and enlivened
by wonderful touches of humor like the Dixie
frills of "Big Black Buck" that underscore an
otherwise valuable criticism of consumerist
society. And lest Donnie be dismissed as an
imitator (a studied, well-versed disciple clearly,
yes, but certainly not a clone), he explores a
wealth of his own refreshingly original ideas,
stretching out with genuine invention (the
gorgeous cosmic explorations of "Heaven Sent," the
jittery electronic backdrop of "Masterplan") as
often as he reaches backwards into retro styles
(invigorating bossa nova on "Do You Know?," the
romantic, Baroque string arrangement of "Turn
Around"). It is as bold and self-assured a debut
as soul music has seen since D'Angelo's Brown
Sugar. It falls just short of brilliance only
because it borrows a few tricks too many from its
obvious musical models, but even with its flaws,
the album is such a vivid, radiant outpouring of
soul-stirring talent and passion that it could
fill two hearts.
Tags : r&b soul pop alternative nusoul neo india arie anthony david jill scott motown records |
