D'angelo LIVE AT THE JAZZ(EX)

The Japan-only original version of Live at the Jazz Cafe, London was released in 1996 as a stopgap between D'Angelo's first and second albums. Eighteen years later, it was expanded and widely reissued as a stopgap between the artist's second and third albums, the latter of which had yet to materialize. The 1996 release consisted of roughly two-thirds of the September 14, 1995 performance, with the selections presented out of sequence. The 2014 release contains the whole set, from the introduction to the rapt applause at the close of an 11-minute "Brown Sugar." In the U.K., D'Angelo's first single was three weeks away from release, yet the audience knew it from the first notes. In the States, the debut album from the 21 year-old was only two months old, on its way to platinum status. In the liner notes, manager Alan Leeds recalls that D'Angelo had done only a few gigs. Indeed, the early portion of this set sounds tentative. It begins with two-minute versions of Mandrill's "Fencewalk" an