New D'Angelo!

I have been waiting since 2005 to say that.

Every five years, D'Angelo would emerge from his cave and release something amazing:
1995: Brown Sugar
2000: Voodoo.

In 2005, we waited. And waited. And waited.

Nothing.

That year, John Mayer endearingly wrote an open letter in Esquire, which said, in part:

I'm writing to ask you to put out a follow-up to one of the few records to change my life forever, Voodoo. When Voodoo came out in 2000, I stood in line at Tower Records in Atlanta at midnight to get it . . . I'm no less excited by it today than I was when I played it full blast in my mother's Plymouth Voyager on the way to my bullshit job.

Now, in honor of A's birthday, we have a new D'Angelo song.

Listen:
Download from Idolator.

Buy:
D'Angelo, Brown Sugar
D'Angelo, Voodoo.

Bonus:
From Live at the Jazz Cafe:
D'Angelo, Me and Those Dreamin' Eyes of Mine.

The Promise of Monday (and D'Angelo)

When I worked at the label, the joke was always that you should never ever answer the phone on Monday. People had spent all weekend talking and dreaming and on, Monday, they would waste your time with their new plans and projects . . . plans that would never come to fruition, as they would figure out in the cold light of Tuesday.

I am sensitive to the promise of Monday. If you are an entrepreneur or just entrepreneurial, Monday is a day of dreams into action. I usually take Monday as a day to get everything together for the week and not as a day to start new projects.

I've been having this weird, blissful thing happening since the beginning of February. It's like, on the surface, everything is okay, under the surface is the roiling stress of dealing with my business partner who's ill and delayed on everything(!) and all of the problems that's causing, but my gooey center is completely blissed.

It's like every day is a Monday full of promise.

Since I often analogize the start of a new company to falling in love, perhaps it is appropriate that this song is playing as I write:

D'Angelo, Higher.

Because I am feeling incredibly generous today, here is a rare track from D'Angelo's Live at the Jazz Cafe, an import only cd you should buy on Amazon:

D'Angelo, Brown Sugar (Live at the Jazz Cafe, London).
Brown Sugar fun fact: as usual, it took A to explain the song to me. Hey, it sounded like a love song. About a person.

Buy D'Angelo on Amazon.

Top Ten All-Time Favorite Songs

Ask someone to name his favorite song and you'll get hemming and hawing. Ask "what are your top ten favorite songs?" and you can learn something interesting.

My Top Ten All-Time Favorite Songs:

Angie Stone featuring D'Angelo, Everyday.
Ella Fitzgerald, Bewitched.
Dave Brubeck Quartet, Blue Rondo A La Turk.
D'Angelo, Me and Those Dreamin' Eyes of Mine.
Donny Hathway, Love Love Love.
Stevie Wonder, As.
dead prez, Hip Hop.
Charlie Hunter Trio, More Than This.
Al Green, Let's Stay Together.
Alicia Keys, If I Ain't Got You.

(At any time, one of these could earn a spot including D'Angelo's The Root and One Mo Gin, Donny Hathaway's Someday We'll All Be Free and A Song For You, Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto's It Might As Well Be Spring, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and Ain't No Mountain High Enough (with Tammi Terrell), The Pharcyde's Passin Me By and I'm That Type of N****, Tribe Called Quest's Left My Wallet in El Segundo, Stevie Wonder's Knocks Me Off My Feet, EWF 's After the Love is Gone.)

A's Top Ten All-Time Favorite Songs:

Charlie Hunter Trio, A Street Fight Could Break Out.
Various, Someday My Prince Will Come.
Medeski Martin & Wood, Shuck It Up.
Joshua Redman, Jazz Crimes.
Take 6, This Is Another Day.
Jane Monheit, It Might As Well Be Spring.
dead prez, Hip Hop.
Tower of Power, You're Still a Young Man.
Brian McKnight, Is the Feeling Gone.
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, You're All I Need.

Check out a few samples below, buy the songs on Amazon and iTunes, and add your top 10 to the comments (or email me, as I know you will).

Angie Stone featuring D'Angelo, Everyday.

D'Angelo, Me and Those Dreamin' Eyes of Mine.

dead prez, Hip Hop.

Stan Getz, Joao & Astrud Gilberto, It Might As Well Be Spring.