Just a month before his new studio album hits stores, legendary R&B artist Al Green will be headlining Sunday night, April 27, at the iconic and newly rejuvenated New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Set to take the Congo Square “My Louisiana” Stage at 5:45pm, Al will perform mainstays from his career as well as perform new songs from his upcoming release, Lay It Down (due out May 27 on Blue Note Records.)
Lay It Down features Al duetting with John Legend, Corinne Bailey Rae and Anthony Hamilton, and was produced by Green, Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson and James Poyser. Lay It Down is a refreshingly old school jam, with everyone laying down the music together, face-to-face, heart-to-heart, soul-to-soul. The sound is purely Al Green, with the artist duets and Ahmir and James’ deft touches bringing it into 2008.
Check out the 60 second clip of the making of Lay It Down:
Quicktime: http://bluenote.edgeboss.net/qtime/bluenote/algreen/layitdown/60secfinal31808_stream.mov
Windows: http://bluenote.edgeboss.net/wmedia/bluenote/algreen/layitdown/algreen_60secstream.asx
As Green explains: “They didn’t want to get too far out from the foundation that [Hi Records producer] Willie Mitchell and I built, ‘Call Me,’ ‘I’m Still In Love With You,’ ‘Let’s Stay Together.’ We want to keep all of the aura, but we would like to have freedom enough to spread our wings and express ourselves. The Roots, all the guys from Philly who came up to do this stuff with us, they were incredible. I could relax because I knew the people were capable.”
Al Green will also be performing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno “Summer Concert Series” on May 21st.