Although originally inspired by jazz and funk’s incorporation into hip-hop the neo soul movement of the early/mid 90’s had certainly taken some interesting and unexpected turns by the beginning of the millennium. And no question this was part of that. After her debut Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1 rocked the music world in such a huge way she released this album independently and at a reduced price. It did pretty well with fans who’d stuck by her before her years of recording I’m sure and likely did the same with those who’d been wowed by her debut. All the same this album was almost set up to be a nonevent in other ways. It disappeared off a lot of record store shelves shortly after release and is probably not her biggest seller. But it does present a wonderful and sound musical concept that has a strong appeal.
Basically what one gets here is a double album;one disc of a live concert featuring her band Fatback Taffy and another of demo level unreleased material. The live set on the first disc stands out the most. For one thing her band has a rich,creamy sound overall. Fatback Taffy have the advantage of being about to get that retro soul thing down to a tee while retaining much of hip-hop’s brooding spareness. She moves in and out of extended pieces such as “Love Rain”,”Do You Remember”,”It’s Love” and “Gettin’ In The Way” almost effortlessly as the songs thick,shuffling jazz styled funky soul textures flow from one tune to the next.
Musically the most fascinating and funky cuts is the high octane uptempo Latin percussion styled “He Loves Me” which brings to mind,of all things Stevie Wonder’s classic “Another Star”. Her overall attitude in the between song banter is one of confidence and wit. Retaining hip-hop styled musings regarding people “with naturals always supposed to be positive” she also adds she sometimes is,other times not while explaining away some easily misinterpreted lyrics from “Gettin’ In The Way”. The song titled after the band is done in a great old fashioned gospel styled rave up.
The studio disc is a whole other matter. Focused far more on the hip-hop side of her “Gotta Get Up” finds Jill having one of her self dialog about the world of duty versus personnel need. Of these tunes the chunky funk of “Gimme” and the uniquely vocally chorded “Be Ready” are the most individual of these songs but for a disc of unreleased music at this early point in a recording career,one really can’t expect complete musical evenness. That being the case one thing this album definitely isn’t lacking on is Jill’s type of self expression. She doesn’t possess the in-your-face attitude of many female hip-hop/neo/retro soul type artists. Instead she comes more from the 70’s OG era in terms of keeping her actual feelings just slightly guarded-choosing to express a more worldly outlook than an inward one. Her internal dialog is only occasionally expressed and that makes it an important element of her sound. The moody rhythmic and melodic side of her music also expresses this well. Even though she started out with a bang this album represents her intent on focusing on her music as art more than as a commodity.
Originally Posted June 24th,2011
Stay tuned to Andresmusictalk for a new weekly feature,inspired by friend and blogging partner Rique,called Anatomy of THE Original Super Heavy Funk. This will be focused on classic funk/jazz/soul songs from the early 60’s up through the disco era. And for now will be posted the first and last Monday’s of every month. Thank you!
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