So, as we reported way back last fall, ?uestlove, who drums in the Roots, is producing Al Green’s forthcoming yet-to-be-titled album. D’Angelo (back from the dead) and Justin Timberlake are slated to contribute. Now release date or tracklist or anything official and substantive has been announced.
Last year, ?uestlove told MTV, “I’m not producing, I’m reducing it. I’m trying to take him back to 1974 — very dry, very dirty, very grassroots sound.”
The footage above is of ?uestlove playing the drums in an Al Green session and talking to the camera, mostly about playing drums in an Al Green session, but it’s kind of cool.
Significantly cooler, 2 Dope Boyz has a leaked track from the sessions that’s pretty freaking solid. Very throwback. ?uestlove and band are no Willie Mitchell and the Hodges brothers (who I regard as the pinnacle of soul production and backing), but they’re as close as we’re going to get today. This is an album to anticipate. Maybe they’ll tour.
Via the new New Yorker culture blog, Goings On. It could use a little color. To its credit, though, it earlier included a post with a link to an L.A. Times story on the recent cancellation of a months-in-the-works concert at Folsom Prison to mark the 40th anniversary of Johnny Cash’s performance. The concert was called off “over filming rights, media access and security.”