Neighborhoods

Olu Dara

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 20, 2001)
• Original Release Date: February 20, 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Atlantic / Wea
• ASIN: B00004ZC42
• In-Print Editions: DVD Audio  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #104,268 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The Mississippi-born, New York-based Olu Dara is the real deal: a modern day, 21st-century musical troubadour at home with jazz, blues, R&B, Latin, and African sounds. Although he's recorded numerous times with tenor sax titan David Murray and has played with Art Blakey and Taj Mahal since the 1970s, his debut recording In the World wasn't released until 1998. On the much-anticipated follow-up, Neighborhoods, Dara delivers more of his cross-genre African American autobiographical soundscapes. Backed by the diasporic grooves provided by his Natchesippi Dance Band, Dara's down-home elliptical vocals and blues-twanged guitar licks color this entire session. On the title track, with its urbane rimshots and catchy guitar hooks, Dara pays tribute to Brooklyn, Harlem, and the Queensbridge projects, where his son, Nas, initiated the next phase of hip-hop. The talking drum grooves "Massamba" along spiritedly. Dr. John lends his bayou-drenched Hammond B-3 organ to the Afro-Latin "I See the Light," the comical "Red Ant(Nature)," and the midtempo mojo-mooded "Herbman." Jazz chanteuse Cassandra Wilson adds her deep-Delta contralto to "Used to Be," and on "Tree Blues" and "Strange Things" Dara turns it out with just his voice, his guitar, and some percussion, just enough for the blues. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Description
Having earned effusive critical praise and a long-running top 20 Billboard hit in 1998 with his Atlantic Records debut, In the World: From Natchez to New York, the New York City-based Olu Dara now brews his trademark blend of Delta Blues, Jazz, Afro-Beat and Caribbean influences, this time around throwing in a heavy dose of funk into the mix. Throughout the album, his warm, natural voice--reflective of his Natchez, Mississippi birth place--gives life to his imagery-filled lyrical stories, from the cinema celebration of "Bell and Ponce (at the Movie Show)" to his melancholy cover of the traditional Bahamian sailor's lament, "Out on the Rolling Sea." Songs: Massamba, Neighborhoods, Herbman, Strange Things Happen Everyday, Bell and Ponce (at the Movie Show), I See the Light, Out on the Rolling Sea, Bluebird, Used to Be (with Cassandra Wilson), Red Ant (Nature), Tree Blues, In the World.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The herbman commeth, March 22, 2001

By A Customer

Indeed Neighborhoods picks up right where Natchez left off but on first listen I was disappointed. It took three complete playings for me to be converted into a believer. Now, I'm asking "Who shot John-man" and looking for alabama cornbread to dip in my georgia buttermilk! This album lacks the raw trumpet power so beautiful in the first album in favor a more polished, production oriented, modern blues sound. But the extremely clever lyrics and african-caribbean-Natchez-New york eclecticism will literally send you reeling. Buy them both and by all means...see a live show.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First rate, June 16, 2004

By	William H. Maruca "Bill Maruca" (Wexford, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a brilliant CD. I have had it for a while and just heard a cut on the local public radio station so I went on line to add his previous CD to my wish list for Fathers' Day. It's a shame he hasn't recorded more. He's and excellent, eclectic songwriter, vocalist, guitarist and trumpter fronting a slick but rootsy band that incorporates blues, funk, world beat and jazz. The lyrics are full of humor and evocative details. Yes, there are some similarities to Taj Mahal but it's not at all derivative.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wow., January 31, 2002

By	Como Gomez (SF, California) - See all my reviews

This album is a rich and varied musical feast. The title track, Neighborhoods, especially, is simply magical. Dara's masterful eclecticism of blues, funk, soul, and so on, is quality to core. Don't hesitate. ...but that's Como!