SOUNDTRACK: OLU DARA-In the World: From Natchez to New York (1998)
A friend of mine (Hi Jon!) made me a copy of this CD several years ago, and I just found it again and popped it in. I was delighted with how much I enjoyed it. I’d never heard of Olu Dara before, and I was quite pleased with the results. It’s a fun carribbean-esque/New Orleans jazz feeling CD. “Okra” and “Your Lips” are particularly fun. The only downside is “Jungle Jay” a rather uninspired rap. I just found that the rap is done by Nas, who is Dara’s son. I don’t know of Nas’s raps, but I assume they must be better than this one.
Overall, this record gives a nice upbeat feel of the heat in the summer time. Even though it has some raw sounding moments (his voice sounds quite vulnerable at times) it still maintains a good, solid sound. Knowing my tastes, I wouldn’t get more by Dara, and I wouldn’t listen to this all that often, but when the mood strikes, this will really hit the spot.
[READ: Winter 2006] What the L
I got tangled up in life, so I forgot that there were a number of books from a while back that I wanted to add to this blog listing. I’m going to intersperse them throughout here, but as you’ll see, some were read nearly two years ago, so I may not have all of my thoughts straight about them. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 