Recommendations of the Editorial team
The music world is reeling from the devastating news on Tuesday (October 14) that soul legend D’Angelo has died aged 51 after a battle with cancer.
“We are saddened that he can leave nothing but fond memories for his family, but we are eternally grateful for the legacy of extraordinarily moving music he leaves behind,” his family said in a statement. “We ask that our privacy be respected during this difficult time, but invite everyone to join us in mourning his death while celebrating the gift of song he left to the world.”
Career and legacy
Michael D’Angelo Archer only released three albums in his long career – “Brown Sugar” (1995), “Voodoo” (2000) and “Black Messiah” (2014). They were all groundbreaking works that earned him 14 Grammy nominations and more critical acclaim than almost any other artist of his time.
“D’Angelo is made of heavier stuff than most of his New Jack contemporaries: He’s a singer-songwriter with a smooth, steady voice that can both cajole and growl, and does so with equal conviction,” wrote Rolling Stone’s Theo H. Coker in a four-star review of “Brown Sugar.” “No matter how delicate or dusty a track may sound, D’Angelo turns the tables with B-boy savoir-faire: he makes the dirty rhythms that simmer beneath his layered love songs seem simultaneously old and new… “Brown Sugar” is a reminder of where R&B has been and – like a phoenix from the ashes – when the genre seeks to regain its creative relevance – where it needs to go.”
Live performances and recent shows
D’Angelo was also an incredible live performer, although his tours were infrequent. He most recently toured in 2015 to promote Black Messiah, performing at festivals such as Bonnaroo as well as headlining dates at venues such as Forest Hills Stadium in New York City, Club Nokia in Los Angeles and the Roundhouse in London.
He popped up again in 2016 for a few performances in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, then again in 2021 when he played a Verzuz event at the Apollo Theater in New York with special guests Method Man and HER.
He last appeared on stage at a “Netflix Is a Joke” comedy event at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on April 20, 2022, headlined by Dave Chappelle. That night he played to a packed house of 17,500, but fans had to lock their phones in bags and this rule was strictly enforced. Consequently, the show is poorly documented on video, and Setlist.FM only lists a single song from its supposed five-song set.
The special band and rarely played songs
We know that D’Angelo was backed for the show by a stunning band that included his long-time friend and colleague Questlove on drums, Raphael Saadiq, Jesse Johnson and Norris Jones on guitar, Josh Dunham on bass, Rodrick Cliché and Cleo “Pookie” Sample on keyboards, as well as a large section of horns and belonged to background singers.
Somehow, despite the cell phone rules, a brave fan in the audience managed to capture short performances of “Babies Making Music” and “Ghetto Music.” The former is a song by Sly Stone from 1973, the latter a collaboration with Q-Tip that was never officially released. There is no record of him ever playing any of these songs before.
Last impressions from the stage
You have to squint to even see D’Angelo on stage in these videos, although Netflix itself released a short teaser showing him entering the stage. They refer to it as his “first performance in six years,” which is just completely wrong considering the 2021 Apollo Theater concert.
There’s definitely a full recording of this set somewhere in the Netflix archives, which will probably be released one day. At the moment it’s mostly memories in the minds of the lucky few who were there. They may have been annoyed by the cell phone ban at the time, but it allowed them to experience real music history with their own eyes – and not through a screen. And what they saw was the last appearance of a true genius of his time.