As well as being critically lauded and commercially successful, D’Angelo was very much a musician’s musician, and since news of his death broke yesterday, friends, colleagues and admirers have been lining up to pay tribute.
Leading the way was Lauryn Hill, who duetted with D’Angelo on Nothing Even Matters, from her seminal 1998 album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
In an open letter to D'Angelo on Instagram, she wrote: "You sir, moved us, stirred us, inspired and even intimidated others to action with your genius. Thank you for being a beacon of light to a generation and beyond who had no remembrance of the legacy that preceded us. Thank you for charting the course and for making space during a time when no similar space really existed."
A message from Beyoncé on her website was similarly effusive: "We thank you for your beautiful music, your voice, your proficiency on the piano, your artistry. You were the pioneer of neo-soul and that changed and transformed rhythm & blues forever. We will never forget you."
Jacob Collier, meanwhile, focused on the influence that D'Angelo had on him personally, as he posted a photo of himself alongside the musician and Quincy Jones on Instagram.
"I simply wouldn’t be the person I am without him," he admitted. "I was molecularly changed from the moment I first heard Voodoo – we all were. Everything about his musicianship… the feel, the tone, the touch, the writing, recording style, playing, pocket, vulnerability… everything. All so unfathomably magnetic and special, effortlessly so."
Sheila E, meanwhile, wrote on Instagram that D'Angelo was "such an amazing gift to the music industry," while Robert Glasper simply said that he was "one of one".
Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist Flea also took to Instagram to pay tribute, calling D'Angelo "One of my all time favorites whose records I went to again and again."
"Noone did anything funkier over the last 30 years," he continued. "I never knew him but humbled myself before his music. What a rare and beautiful voice and an inimitable approach to songwriting. What a musician!!! He changed the course of popular music."
Further tributes came from D'Angelo's neo-soul contemporaries. Maxwell wrote, "Because u were , we are all because," while Jill Scott said, "I never met D’Angelo but I love him, respect him, admire his gift."
D'Angelo fans have also been flocking to social media to post their favourite musical memories of him, with this superb display of funk guitar playing and vocal prowess in a brief cover of Parliament's Do That Stuff - filmed for Nelson George's 2013 film Finding The Funk - proving particularly popular.
Others have been focusing on D'Angelo's never-more-poignant cover of Prince's Sometimes It Snows in April, which he performed in the wake of his musical hero's death in 2016.
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