Critics everywhere agreed that Olu Dara's In the World-From Natchez to New York was one of 1998's best albums. The only problem was, in what category? Jazz? Dara came to this album with impeccable credentials in the genre, having played with David Murray, James "Blood" Ulmer, Henry Threadgill, and Don Pullen. However, though Dara does flash his burnished cornet tone on occasion, he is more often picking on guitar as opposed to blowing on trumpet on this record. And while there is definitely some of that arpeggiated African guitar sound to his playing, it would be a stretch to call In the World a "world music" release. No, in the end, this is a country blues album from the urban jungle, an utterly charming, all-in-one tour of Natchez and New York with maybe Nairobi thrown in there, with a little extra urban flavor courtesy of Dara's rapper son Nas, who contributes vocals to "Jungle Jay." Long a favorite of our Real Gone Music staff, In the World-From Natchez to New York debuts on vinyl in a green okra edition limited to 1000 copies, remastered for the format with insert included. Highly recommended!

As described in our Privacy Policy, we collect personal information from your interactions with us and our website, including through cookies and similar technologies. We may also share this personal information with third parties, including advertising partners. We do this in order to show you ads on other websites that are more relevant to your interests and for other reasons outlined in our privacy policy.

Sharing of personal information for targeted advertising based on your interaction on different websites may be considered "sales", "sharing", or "targeted advertising" under certain U.S. state privacy laws. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to opt out of these activities. If you would like to exercise this opt-out right, please follow the instructions below.

If you visit our website with the Global Privacy Control opt-out preference signal enabled, depending on where you are, we will treat this as a request to opt-out of activity that may be considered a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information or other uses that may be considered targeted advertising for the device and browser you used to visit our website.