"Brown Sugar" – D'Angelo
About this episode
The episode explores D'Angelo's debut album 'Brown Sugar', analyzing its unique sound and jazz influences.
D'Angelo's Brown Sugar sounded like nothing else in 1995. R&B was slick, polished, and built for clubs. D'Angelo later said the "deeper consciousness" had gone out of contemporary music. Questlove later wrote that contemporary R&B had become "trite" and "soulless" ... and then there was Brown Sugar, D'Angelo's debut album. It sounded more like the '70s than the '90s. More like church than the club. On this episode of You'll Hear It, jazz pianists Adam Maness and Peter Martin go track by track through D'Angelo's debut, pulling apart the vocal stems, naming the jazz chords underneath the soul, and tracing every influence back to its root. They also bring in the archival recordings you might have missed: a live set from the Jazz Café London that gives the album a whole second life, and a J Dilla remix. ------------------------------- Start your free Open Studio trial for ALLLLL your jazz lesson needs: https://openstudiojazz.com/yhi ------------------------------- Related You'll Hear It episodes: Voodoo: https://youtu.be/AYqmFNF2s0U ------------------------------- About You'll Hear It: In this popular music series Adam and Peter break down the greatest albums of all time…
Sponsors
Open Studio
More episodes of You'll Hear It
- Kid A – Radiohead
- Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', and Steamin' – Miles Davis Quintet
- I Want You – Marvin Gaye
- Buena Vista Social Club
- "Money Jungle" – Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Max Roach
- Best New Jazz Of March 2026
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the You'll Hear It podcast page.