A Newbury Comics exclusive vinyl pressing, one clear LP and one gold LP, packaged In a gatefold sleeve with expanded liner notes.
Though inspired by the birth of his children and trips back to Virginia, Voodoo’s roots are in 1960s, '70s and '80s funk and soul; a nostalgic nod to the ideas and inventions of black music trailblazers powered by avant-garde hip-hop and jazz-influenced rhythms. D'Angleo's aim, he said, was to reclaim R&B. He wanted to be like Sly Stone, George Clinton and Al Green. And most of all, he wanted to be like Jimi Hendrix. Where does a potently focused young man go to remake Electric Ladyland? New York's Electric Lady studios, of course: in the same rooms in which Hendrix and Stevie Wonder reinvented music decades earlier, and on the same equipment too. In an era in which soul musicians were obsessing over all things synthetic, D'Angelo was looking to the warm sounds of the past. Electric Lady's Studio C became D'Angelo's brand new creative laboratory. The concept behind Voodoo was simple. Put together a brilliant ensemble of R&B musicians bent on grooving together. Record them live, in real-time, jamming face-to-face in an effort to capture their conviviality and chemistry. For Voodoo's core rhythm trio, D'Angelo recruited his friend and colleague, The Roots' visionary drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, plus Welsh journeyman Pino Palladino to hold down the bass. It was a combination that gelled immediately.
