In the summer of 2012, D’Angelo, who succumbed to cancer at age 51 this week, was beginning to emerge from a decade-plus in self-imposed exile from the public eye. While he had performed a handful of shows in Europe earlier in the year and was due to play a pair of domestic festivals later in the summer, the R&B icon had not performed live in the U.S. in 12 years when Questlove recruited him to take part in Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival‘s annual SuperJam on June 9th.
While D’Angelo was sitting on the cache of music that would become Black Messiah at the time and The Roots were playing a headlining set of their own at the festival earlier in the evening, they opted to focus exclusively on covers for D’s surprise return to the U.S. stage, presenting fans with a “time machine” set featuring classics and deep cuts by Funkadelic, Ohio Players, Sly & The Family Stone, Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles.
A mini-documentary shot and directed by Danny Clinch for Bonnaroo follows Questlove in the lead-up to that busy day at Bonnaroo 2012. The behind-the-scenes film is split into four episodes, each containing both interviews with the band and crew alongside live performance videos from the now-storied performance.
Related: D’Angelo, Reclusive R&B Icon, Dead At 51
In the first episode, “Origins,” Questlove lays out the high-stakes mission he plans to undertake at Bonnaroo 2012: As he explains to Clinch in a New York City cab, “This Friday, the second I stop taping Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, I’m gonna to run to JFK Airport and I’m going to fly to Tennessee. We will have our own private jam session for five hours, we’ll take a dinner break—and dinner break is basically me running to the Bonnaroo set, to do my own show—and then, soon as my show is over, I’m going to high tale it back to rehearsal.”
He ads, “It’s going to be my favorite moment the first five minutes of that show, because no one knows who’s jamming. No one has any idea. Anyone that’s ever been a fan of this, I want to tell them so bad but I can’t, you know? I cannot wait to see the world’s reaction when I just say, simply, ‘For the first time in 12 years on an American stage, D’Angelo.’ I will travel Hell and high water to make sure this goes down.”
The “Origins” episode also details the New Orleans roots of Bonnaroo’s SuperJams and details Questlove’s previous experience taking part in SuperJams with Herbie Hancock (2005) and John Paul Jones and Ben Harper (2007). It ends with footage of D’Angelo, Questlove, and company closing their SuperJam set with “My Summertime Thang”, the Prince-penned track released in 1990 by The Time.
Questlove and D’Angelo SuperJam | Ep.1: Origins, “My Summertime Thang” (Prince, The Time) | Bonnaroo 2012
The documentary’s second episode, titled “Getting The Band Back Together,” covers the building of the SuperJam band. As Questlove explains, “A lot of the cast of characters that helped make [D’Angelo’s Voodoo] a classic were in the vicinity, and so I came up with a crazy idea: I wonder if I could ever get us to capture the magic the we had when we were creating that Voodoo album.”
Through interviews with band members like longtime D/Quest cohort Pino Palladino (bass), Prince saxophonist Eric Leeds, and The Time guitarist Jesse Johnson, the clip offers insight into the cover-focused “map” for the performance. But a quote from Alan Leeds, D’Angelo’s tour manager, adds context to the supergroup’s intentions for this “time machine” set: “It’s not like they’re just going to, you know, do straight up covers of copies. It’s like, let’s take these really obscure but terrific jams and shape them to fit the personalities and the skillsets in this band, which are very singular, very unique. We’re all gonna be surprised. I think they’ll surprise each other, and I think that’s the whole point and beauty of this thing.”
The “Getting The Band Back Together” episode comes to a close with live footage of the band performing Ohio Players’ “Pride and Vanity” later that night.
Questlove and D’Angelo SuperJam | Ep.2: Getting The Band Back Together, “Pride and Vanity” (Ohio Players) | Bonnaroo 2012
“What I wanted to do was show people how we came up with song structure,” Questlove explains in “Hit It and Quit It,” the third episode of the documentary: “During the Voodoo session, working with D’Angelo, we’d just go through people’s catalogs and jam on a part, and then change this and change that. Next thing you know it just totally morphs into a whole ‘nother song.”
Episode 3 goes on to spotlight the fact that amid a day of pressurized rehearsals and historic reunions, Questlove and The Roots—many of whom also took part in the SuperJam—also had to perform a headlining set of their own that evening. The clip ends with live footage of the SuperJam group covering Funkadelic’s “Funky Dollar Bill” and “Hit It and Quit It” onstage.
Questlove and D’Angelo SuperJam | Ep.3: Hit It and Quit It, “Funky Dollar Bill” (Funkadelic), “Hit It and Quit It” (Funkadelic) | Bonnaroo 2012
Through the first three parts of the behind-the-scenes series, one person’s absence is notable: D’Angelo. “We haven’t played with D’Angelo yet, so that’ll throw another entity into things,” Eric Leeds notes at the start of the clip.” It goes on to show the man of the hour meeting the band at rehearsal mid-song ahead of his first live performance in the U.S. in 12 years.
Although they don’t intend to perform any of his new material, his D’Angelo’s growth as an artist during his tumultuous time away is showcased via his newfound dexterity on guitar.
While some nervousness had been evident in the band’s interviews prior to D’s arrival, his presence seems to resolve that tension. “[He’s] an inspiration to be around,” Palladino explains. “He just has a way of bringing out the best in you, which is the ultimate you can say about an artist, I think.”
The episode comes to a close with footage of D’Angelo and Kendra Foster leading the cover onstage intercut with their rehearsal of the song from earlier in the evening.
Questlove and D’Angelo SuperJam | Ep.4: The Return of D’Angelo, “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” (The Beatles) | Bonnaroo 2012
Below, you can dig deeper into the D’Angelo/Questlove SuperJam from Bonnaroo 2012 with the full setlist, photos, and a complete audience audio recording of the set. We’ll miss you, D’Angelo. Thank you for providing us with so many unforgettable moments like this one.
Questlove and D’Angelo SuperJam – Bonnaroo 2012 – Full Audio
[Audio: Randy Bayers]
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