Neighborhoods
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 titanDavid Murrayand has played withArt BlakeyandTaj Mahalsince the 1970s, his debut recordingIn the Worldwasn'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. Johnlends 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 chanteuseCassandra Wilsonadds 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.