On his belated debut, 1998's "In the World - from Natchez to New York" (also on Atlantic), Dara chose to forsake his NYC jazz loft-scene for a blues and roots focus for a debut album that was shot through with an urbanity and hipness that that left few obvious reference points. In this album, the focus shifts more to groove-driven West African sounds, while also digging deeper into gritty R&B and funk. However, in shifting to these more insistent, upbeat rhythms, there is less of the reflective beauty of past tracks such as "Young Mama" and "Harlem Country Girl".

From the opening song, "Massamba", a loose-limbed and joyous tribute to Dara's Congolese percussionist, a fresh and spontaneous vibe is produced. The Mayfieldesque title track, with its urbane rimshots and catchy guitar hooks, contrasts against "Strange Things Happen Everyday" and "Tree Blues", which just combine his voice, his guitar, and some percussion, and are as close to straightforward blues as Dara chooses to go. His status among fellow musicians is evident by his high-powered guests: Dr John lends his swampy Hammond B-3 organ to the Afro-Latin "I See the Light," the comical "Red Ant (Nature)," and the midtempo "Herbman"; while Jazz chanteuse (and fellow Mississippian), Cassandra Wilson adds her deep contralto to "Used to Be". However, it's Dara's down-home vocals and blues-twanged guitar licks that colour the entire session.

It seems that in every chosen disparate style, it's as if Dara acknowledges the shared proximities of "primitive" blues and the "progressive" jazz of his later years. Notes are bent, time signatures shift: moments of abstraction are punctuated with contrasting moments of explosive precision. This makes it an unpolished album in some respects, with spontaneity often chosen over clarity. I find it not as immediate an album as his debut, occasionally his lyrics get a little *too* elliptical - and his voice, which relies more on nuance than range, is not as well-suited to some of the more upbeat tracks.

In all, perhaps it's almost an irrelevance to mention that Dara's trumpet has graced albums by the likes of Julian Hemphill, David Murray, James "Blood" Ulmer, and Art Blakely. Perhaps an irrelevance too that Dara frequently collaborates with numerous poets and playwrights - Aishan Rahman, Rita Dove, August Wilson and Ntozake Shrange among them. But what is important is that Dara is a master storyteller, and that the stories told are remarkably unselfconscious, wise and affectionate.

These days it often seems that musical eclecticism has become debased by so much pointless and misguided fusion - interbreeding that seems to arise from economic pressure rather than artistic choice. Here Olu Dara has produced another album of deep, unforced, diasporic soul.

This review is copyright © 2001 by James Daniell, and Blues On Stage, all rights reserved. Copy, duplication or download prohibited without written permission. For permission to use this review please send an E-mail to Ray Stiles.