The Dublin, Ireland-based band U2 sandblasted a reputation for world unifying socially conscious musical missives that will ring in this planet's atmosphere for many generations to come. This CD featuring some of the finest artists from Africa – the most powerful yet vulnerable continent on earth – taps into the kinetic essence of the group's music with an empathetic connection that fierce, organic and beautiful to behold. The package is an educational wonder, with individual page entries for each song that detail the artist and the region Africa from which they hail. A portion of the proceeds from the CD will benefit Global Fund, an organization crated to finance a dramatic turnaround in the fights against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria which kill over 6 million people each year. Artists include Angelique Kidjo (Benin), Les Nubians (Cameroon), Cheikh Lo (Senegal), Vieux Farka Toure' (Mali) and Tony Allen (Nigeria). Highly recommended.

For an album that was anticipated as being an explosive and controversial statement, the music production on the new Untitled CD is surprisingly tame. But that doesn't stop Untitled from firing off much heat on pieces like "America," "Hero," "Ni**er," and the rocked out media giant drive-by "Sly Fox" ("What's a fox characteristic / Slick shit sensing, misinformation / Pimp the station, over-stimulation / Perception deception, the Comcast digital Satan / The fox has a bushy tail / And Bush tells lies and Fox trots / So I don't know what's real...") Nas makes an extra spicy detour with Busta Rhymes to big up the sexiness of soul sistas on "Fried Chicken," but follows it up with a more literally nasty street metaphor for the dwellers of ghettos everywhere titled "Project Roach." Tellingly, Nas opens the album with "You Can't Stop Is Now" (lifting its hook from the Temptations' inflammatory civil rights soul classic "Message From a Black Man") then flips a '90s 2pac line from "I Wonder if Heaven Got a Ghetto" to the chorus of the CD closer "Black President," a vote of support for Barrack Obama. All in all, Nas' latest is a wake up call for Black America to check itself and the surrounding world...closing in.

From the camp of established singer/poet Marlon Saunders comes a tangy new voice of April Hill – obviously an Atlanta native. Since last year, her debut has been doing a slow burn into the consciousness of the soul elite. It's the kind of CD women will love because she breaks it down to the fellas that she is a lover to end all lovers, but you've got to treat her right...cuz she will walk out on you. Heavy shades of Marlena Shaw's tell it like it is flavor drip all over this jazzy soul creation on highlights that blend spoken word with sophisti-soul. Those songs are ""You Got Me," "Feelin' You," "Manipulation" and "Today." April also covers the Marvin Gaye/Leon Ware chestnut "I Want You" and flips a Bill Withers gem from a female P.O.V. on "Hope He'll Be Happier." After all the drama, the 10-song CD ends cheerfully with the peppery horn rave "No More Tears."

I absolutely loved the idea of this CD before I heard a note. I was released when my instincts were rewarded with a very enjoyable listen. This record represents a profound meeting of American musical minds. And in this election year when American people are going to be forced to live and toil together for the overall better of our nation like never before, it is the symbol of what these two gentlemen represent - from different races, generations and musical styles - that will lead the way. By the way, the music is great and for a review of the concert they performed at the Hollywood Bowl during the week of its release, turn to the back pages of this issue. Thank you kindly.

George Duke is that all-around musician that we point to today as a pillar of the art form. His career has seen him do it all and if you ain't knowin', Google the brother and get your learn on. Duke revisits the commercial highlights that have spiked his career with lucrative album sales and tours on the majority of this wildly varied new album Dukey Treats. Musician heads that love George's fusion stuff can marvel at "Everyday Hero" and "Images of Us." he pays tribute to the spirit of classic soul legends Earth Wind & Fire and Marvin Gaye on "Are You Ready" and "Listen Baby," respectively. Those that dug his loose and limber funk forays such as "Reach For It" and "Dukey Stick" can get down with the title track "Dukey Treats" and a rap-laced revisit to his more recent primer on cheatin' titled "Creepin' (Ghoulie Remix)." Those that knocked back a few Tanqueray and tonics with the relationship blues of "No Rhyme No Reason" will fall right into to "Right on Time." Finally, with George always being one to take time to share his concerns on more pressing matters for mankind, there is the standout "Sudan (It's a Cryin' Shame)," which speaks on the unspeakable horrors plaguing the dark continent with superlative and impassioned vocal assistance from special guests Jonathan Butler and Teena Marie. This should be one of George's best received albums fan-wise. He covers all the bases in first class style. For those interested in early fusion era George Duke, check out the recent Verve reissue of his 1974 MPS release Faces in Reflection which finds him in trio mode with John Heard on bass and Ndugu on drums, plus a couple of sweet solo piano pieces.

Trumpeter Roy Hargrove is in the zone for his latest album, a soulful jazz masterpiece that places an emphasis on the warm rooted aspects of jazz. This is easily one of the most lusciously beautiful recordings you will hear all year (check out "Brown," "Divine," "Strasbourg / St. Denis" and "Rouge"). I really don't have much more to say than that. This sublimely mellow, listener-friendly midnight persuader is titled Earfood for a very good reason. Feast to your heart, soul and erogenous zone's content.

Three masters of the bass, a.k.a. Lords of the Low Frequencies, pool their expansive resources for this project. It takes some getting used to listening to the bass – an instrument so long associated with the foundations of songs – playing such a consistently upfront presence to the power of three. To their credit, these two generations of musicians offer up the music in original compositions with specifically delineated parts of melody, rhythm and harmonics, do a few freestyle jams just because they can, and tip their hats to a couple of classics to boot. This writer was most taken with the medley of Clarke classics "Lopsy Lu/Silly Putty" (with the bass line from the Average White Band's "School Boy Crush" blended in for good measure) and the Miller composition "Pendulum" which showcases the singular strengths of each player to transfixing effect.

There hasn't been a soul man quite like singer/songwriter Michael Archer, better known as D'Angelo. His arrival on the scene with Brown Sugar in 1995 brought forth the deepest, darkest amalgam of R&B, hip hop and blues with a touch of jazz that has yet to be matched. Frustratingly for fans, the man has been MIA since his glorious tour for his 2000 sophomore CD Voodoo, except for the occasional guest appearance on the albums of close friends. Word has it that he will be completing his long awaited third album for release at the end of this year (optimistically) or possibly next year. To get folks on-point, EMI has put together a special set that includes a CD of his hits loaded with additional songs he recorded on film soundtracks and such away from his own albums – from covers of classics by Prince and the Ohio Players to his own precious "I Found My Smile Again" from Space Jam. There's also a bonus DVD disc with seven video performances. Some have complained that D should have had a couple of more albums before a compilation of this sort really made sense. But since much of this material came from albums other than his, those who weren't; aware of or weren't trying to spend the extra money on those superfluous projects can get a lot of great D'Angelo stray material in one funky place. Stay tuned for the return of the real Dark Knight.

For my final review of the month, I'd like to turn your attention to a project of instrumental music that playfully, wistfully and with carefree disregard for the exercise, defies categorization. Ken Navarro's The Grace of Summer Nights exists purely and simply as what I'll call "magic music." It's the stuff that just transports you to a place you wish you could live all the time – your imagination. When I plugged in, I visualized every pick on his guitar string like a cherry apple swan diving into an impossibly blue lagoon – and I hadn't had a drop to drink or dropped any ecstasy. This music inspires your mind to the poetry of images, memories, visions and daydreams – random sketches from some abandoned canvas in your consciousness that you can cast upon over and over again. Call it a film score for the mind, call it aural caramel, call it a new age jazz cappuccino blend or call it a ladybug in flight. Just listen to the prettily layered melodies...and drift.

When I was a child of no more than four living in Rialto, California, the voice of James Brown - recorded live on a double album on King Records before an ecstatic audience at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem – reached out through the speakers of our stereo and schooled me up proper on what soul music was all about. Thrilled by what my father loved to dismiss as "all that screamin' and hollerin'," I took our vacuum cleaner and turned it into a microphone stand, made the electric cord my mike, and I would transform into a miniature version of "the man," thrilling to every squeal and shout I could will from a crowd of people (mostly girls) that loved me. To this day I can clearly remember those times alone in the living room or with my parents and neighbors laughing and cheering me on. Now, 40 years later, it is utterly surreal for me to watch footage from this very same engagement – seeing the two drummers, seeing the crowd, seeing the band and the emcee in living color as well as Mr. Brown himself showing me how it's really done. This 3-DVD set is filled with mind-blowing musical performances, but also is a time capsule of Black America. Relaxed audio interviews of Mr. Brown (when you could understand every word he had to say – deeply meaningful passages) over archival footage of ghetto life in Watts and Harlem lends a documentary feel, letting you see everything the hardest working man in show business was really fighting for when "Star Time" was through...his mission for making tomorrow a better day for blacks and all downtrodden everywhere. I will write more about this box set in our next issue, but know that each of the three discs is a experience unto itself (the one I reminisced on being Live at the Apollo 1968), but the whole box is a MUST for your home library.

The grown ass Jackson brothers hit their artistic peak with a funky 9-song project from 1980 titled Triumph. From the glorious opening salvo of "Can You Feel It" that hyped us all up for the '80s to the ticklish funk of the first single "Lovely One," the jazzy cool of Jackie's "Your Ways" (featuring Greg Phillinganes on electric piano) and Michael and Tito's relentless "Everybody" (anchored by a ferocious co-composer Mike McKinney on bass), Side 1 alone contained some of the fiercest jams of the whole year. But the masterpiece of Triumph remains "Heartbreak Hotel" (later re-titled "This Place Hotel" because of a conflict with the Presley estate). "Hotel" remains a Michael Jackson tour de force of horror movie tribute and sexual angst that hinted at darker things to come from Michael on the solo tip ("Billie Jean" and "Leave Me Alone"). And it also marked the rare meeting of the minds of super arrangers Tom Tom 84 and Jerry Hey (no wonder it was so epic). Then you had the tender "Time Waits for No One" (with strings arranged by Jerry Peters), the only worthy weepie in Micheal's grown up canon, followed by one of pure disco's final classics "Walk Right Now" (presented on this deluxe project in the original mix plus two remixes). Triumph is rounded out with the punctuated groove tune "Give it Up" (with fuzz guitar and strings that recalled sweeter Jackson 5ive days at Motown) and the feverish finale of Jackie and Randy's "Wondering Who." Because the original CD pressing of this album stunk audio-wise, this overdue reissue is worth full price for the re-mastering alone.

Soul survivor is the operative term for the great Bobby Womack. A sand raising soul shouter, a stinging guitarist and a soul piercing songwriter, he is just about the most complete package that R&B has ever created – and he's still here! Raised in the church but making a segue to the secular with the great Sam Cooke, Womack started out in a family group with his brothers before striking out on a perilous solo career in the '60s while simultaneously breaking off Wilson Pickett with some of the biggest hits of his career (including "I'm a Midnight Mover" and "I'm in Love," both of which Womack also recorded). But it was in the early '70s that Womack came into his own with the moniker The Preacher and a pair of galvanizing albums titled Communication and Understanding which begat the soul classis "Woman's Gotta Have It," "That's The Way I Feel About ‘Cha," "I Can Understand It" and "Harry Hippie." Sandwiched in between was one of the Top 3 '70s Black action film themes of all-time, "Across 110th Street" (later used brilliantly in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown starring one-time Womack girlfriend/backup singer Pam Grier, who will be including thoughts about their time together in a 2010-slated autobiography). ALL of those songs plus some of his singular covers ranging from Sinatra's "Fly Me To The Moon" and James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" PLUS his duet version of "It's All Over Now" with Bill Withers are included in this insanely generous and warmly re-mastered 22-song CD from his Minit and United Artists years. The only issue is an early, incorrect mix of "Across 110th Street" that may make this CD an instant collectible (much like when the alternate mixes were accidentally included in the first CD reissue of Sly Stone's Fresh). Package also features never before published photos from a big money shoot plus liner notes that include a colorful reflection from Womack himself. Cop this with a quickness!

The love songs of the Manhattans vocal group have been anthologized in many forms, but this new set is the only comprehensive to cover their '60s/early '70s material on Carnival and Deluxe Records, the smash hi years on Columbia in the '70s/'80s and some of the more recent work. Featuring the star voice of Gerald Alston, the classic spoken passages of Blue Lovett and some of the loveliest balladry in the history of soul, the Manhattans ironically made some of their sweetest sounds in Philly with Bobby Martin and with Leo Graham in Chicago. But the singer/songwriters graced the world with timeless classics such as "There's No Me Without You," "When We're Made As One," "If My Heart Could Speak," "A Million to One," "It Feels So Good To Be Loved So Bad," "(You Are My) Shining Star," "I'll Never Find Another (Find Another Like You)," "Just One Moment Away" and a duet with a young Regina Belle titled "Where Did We Go Wrong" (produced by Bobby Womack). 45 songs total (plus great photos and lengthy liner notes that include input from Alston), this collects every R&B charting single the gentlemen ever had...and that's a lot of first class soul.

The name Sidney Barnes may not be a household one, but in classic soul circles it is one held in great reverence. Having come up in the golden era of Motown and Chess Records, he made himself invaluable in the Detroit and Chicago soul scenes, particularly in the racially integrated underground rock and soul band Rotary Connection (with Minnie Riperton). These days, Barnes is on a much more traditional ground with this 12-song salute to the music of Nat "King" Cole – the man Barnes pegs as "the world's greatest" jazz crooner. As a man who liner note writer Bob Davis pegged as a person who "connects together many of the unconnected dots of black music history," Sidney is well versed in all of the classics that came before him. What Sidney does with Nat's songs like "Because of You," "When Sunny Gets Blue," "Where Do I Begin" and "What Now My Love," (in trio, quartet and big band arrangements) is in no way imitation. It's got an unvarnished, straight from the hip cool to it that in no way apes the King Cole signature. That is the mark of a true tribute.

Soul rocker Natalie Cole brought herself back in a big way with the 1991 collection Unforgettable, in which she paid loving tribute to the music of her father Nat King Cole. Several albums and swanky live events ensued before she returned to contemporary pop and adult contemporary fare. With this new album, she returns with another 14 song sentimental journey that shows her heart still belongs to daddy. The orchestral and big band arrangements of Patrick Williams, John Clayton, Nan Schwartz and Victor Vanacore, this tribute – unlike the Sidney Barnes above – is more predictable...yet no less heartfelt (includes another duet with daddy: "Walkin' My Baby Back Home").

Jazz pianist Larry Vuckovich is a film noir buff which allows him to take a novel approach to a pair of albums that are as wonderful for the great jazz they contain as for the sources of their sometimes moody other times swingin' inspiration. As a Serbian-Montenegran child growing up in Tito's Communist regime in Yugoslavia and, before that, in World War II under German, Croatian and Muslim Nazis, Larry was facing bitter realities from a young age. Reflecting on his affinity for film noir, he states, "This (film) genre shows an honest cross-section of American life. Characters are portrayed realistically – some decent, others ruthless – and sometimes, in a surprising twist, they turn out to be the same person!" Fortunately, Larry is consistent in his musical taste and excellence on Street Scene (2006) and High Wall (2008) that moves from the material of Joe Sample, John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie to Joaquin Rodrigo, Bronislaw Kaper and Vucovich himself, smoother than you can say, "Here's looking at you, kid."