Something happened in the world of music of black origin in the late-1990s.
The Nu Classic (or Neo) Soul movement came to the fore. Like all movements, it didn’t start with a declaration or even a real sense of identity. But we consumers and connoisseurs spotted a trend, a shift and a pattern. We gave the tag and we made it a movement.
Organic soul – real instrumentation over synthesised or sampled beats – was back! Guitars, bass, brass, strings – all there. And whilst computerised inputs were part of the production process, we revelled in a “back to the future” sound that had learned its way back into our consciousness.
D’Angelo, Mint Condition, India.Arie, Erykah Badu, and the glorious Maxwell (there’s a future blog on this brother coming soon – don’t fret), Amel Larrieux/Groove Theory, Omar, Sean Oliver, Adriana Evans – the roster was big and impressive. Still, a bit underground but major labels like Motown picked up this new breed of artistry.
The US and UK were arriving at this same moment and crossing over influence to each other. Live concerts were back. CD players and Walkman’s pulsated with the rootsy sounds of Raphael Saadiq, Jill Scott, Lauryn Hill and Me’Shell Ndegeocello. Even movie soundtracks mixed street-wise hip-hop, swing and this neo-soul segue between Curtis Mayfield and Teddy Riley.
And it signalled a new musicality from the more fiercely dominated beats of Jungle/Drum-n-Bass, Dancehall, Rap and UK Garage.
Harmony, melodies, street poetry and love stories with social angst, celebrations of unity and a sense of identity.
We had a movement. The Neo Soul Movement.
And returning to the UK, a surge of interest in this format. We got basslines from real strings, we got drumbeats from real sticks and we got vocals with real purity.
Real purity is what one artist oozed. And sadly only for a brief moment in time. But nonetheless, a legacy and a moment to savour. Lynden David Hall burst into our headphones in 1998. Spotted and signed, by the Don of UK Soul DJs Trevor Nelson, to Cooltempo Records and we had our D’Angelo. Except this dude stood in his own space.
Sensitive, soulful and elegant in lyrics, LDH was a hero of ours. I still recall the utter adoration of “Do I Qualify” as the epitome of sensitivity. The opposite of G-Dawg braggadocio. The calm, looping and yet fiercely strong sense of a new form of male vocalist and writing talent.
We may know “Sexy Cinderella” for that brought LDH to the pop charts. He instantly fitted in with the social conscience of the Young Disciples before him, of Noel McKoy and Vanessa Simon around him and the smoothness of Omar with his classical music background.
But lower sales and a lack of chart hits take their toll, and after only his second album – both critically acclaimed – Cooltempo dropped LDH. Little did we know what was to come.
A self-funded and recorded third album dropped in 2005 but there was a bigger battle than chart positions in Lynden David Hall’s life. Hodgkin’s Lymphoma had him in its grip. Despite stem cell treatment, a lack of bone marrow donor matches ultimately cost LDH his life and he left us for the choir in the sky in 2006.
But Lynden David Hall did more than record and sell a few records. He symbolised a return and a renaissance. Of smoother, melodic but powerfully moving songs and a style that was commensurate with the shifting sands of what it means to be a modern man, a modern black man, in a music industry that is quick to applaud and quick to forget.
No doubt that we have LDH’s monogram on the sounds of modern, contemporary soul music be it from the UK, the US or elsewhere.
His friends Shola Ama, Beverley Knight and Ms Dynamite had a Jazz Cafe concert in 2005 to celebrate his life and raise awareness of bone marrow donation. And his wife Nikki – on the night of that concert – held up her phone for the crowd to show their love on a call to his hospital bed.
David Lynden Hall arrived into our world on 7 May 1974 and left us on 14 February 2006. 17 years ago, we lost a shining example of what talent, heart and soul are all about. But LDH remains in our libraries, our playlists and our hearts.
Do I Qualify? you asked us. Lynden David Hall – you are the qualifying benchmark. Rest in Power. You gave us our movement. Neo Soul lives on with you in its Hall of Fame.
8 February 2023
Perry is the Founder and Chief Energy Officer of People and Transformational HR Ltd (PTHR) and is a Chartered Member of the CIPD, a fellow of the RSA and Visiting Professor at 4x Business Schools in the UK. Perry is a 3x published author; a 2x TEDx Speaker and 5x Member of HR’s Most Influential Thinkers List ranking Number 1 in 2022.
Perry’s musical heritage lies most deeply in 1960s American Soul/R&B and British Soul & Funk from the 1980s-date.