Darondo is Al Green with a bite.

I recently tried out the emusic free 50 downloads that everyone is getting so excited about. I have to admit its a pretty sweet deal getting 50 free mp3s without paying a dime. I signed up for the 40 songs for 9.99 a month after trying it out to show you how impressed I was. Anyways this isn't about me trying to peddle something so lets get down to one of the artists I DL'ed.

I downloaded Darondo's Set My People Free. "Double D" Darondo has a sweet soulful voice. His voice is so smooth. While is music his great his background might be even more interesting and diverse. Oliver at the epic Soul Sides had this great summary:

"Raised in the Bay, he was leading a house band in Albany as a high school student. Became a pimp in the 1960s and stayed pimping until the early '80s and in the middle of that, he dropped three singles (six songs total), all of which are ridiculously rare. Then he left the music business and hasn't been back since.Thankfully, the folks at Luv N Haight, with help from my friend Justin Torres, just released Let My People Go which not only includes those six songs, but also includes three songs from a previously unreleased reel recovered from some dusty box in Darondo's attic (or so we assume)."

This album was definitely worth the download just for the track "Didn't I" alone. This guy used to roll with James Brown and you can hear why. This album is a crazy blend of soul, jazz, all with a latin flair. If you have not checked out this man do so now. You will not be dissappointed.

Mp3: Darondo - "Didn't I"
Mp3: Darondo - "Listen to my song"

Video: Visit the Ubiquity Web site where they have unearthed video of Darondo presenting music videos on Cable Access. Amazing stuff.

Buy Darondo's Set My People Free here.