I once heard a saxophonist (can't think of his name) on the Ken Burns jazz documentary say when he and others 1st heard Charlie Parker, they knew this was the direction the music was to go in and that he didn't care if he sounded exactly like Bird because that was his intent.

He went on to say that the measure of any artist is the impact their music has on their contemporaries...now ask yourself...between the "Pied Pedo" and D'angelo, who has had the most imitators?

Honestly, what serious artists past or present can you see a direct Kells influence?

D'angelo was the innovator behind the genre, "neo-soul"...but more importantly, he was the catalyst of r&b/soul artists in the mid 90s coming along and started to incorporate live instrumention driven music again instead of the watered down *souless* music.

And you keep talking abt D'angelo mumbling when he sings...let me just tell you that there was another artist who was famous for "mumbling,"...you might know of him: his name was JAMES BROWN