By Fae Morgan, Staff Writer

HARTFORD — The very talented Janelle Monae is the headline act for the city’s Jazz concert at the Bushnell this Friday at the Bushnell Park Performance Pavilion, one of the many events in the year-long line up of Hartford’s 375 Anniversary Celebration.

Monae, with her trademark hairdo, is known for her off the wall fashion and powerful songs.

So far, there’s little buzz about this fresh up and coming star. But we’re sure Hartford will welcome her futuristic sounds and videos of her first album, The ArchAndroid.

In the notes for futuristic soul diva Janelle Monae’s debut LP The ArchAndroid (out May 18), she cites the following as inspirations: Princess Leia’s cinnamon buns hairstyle, Fela Kuti’s cigarettes, Jack White’s mustache. The oddball influences make more sense within the anything-goes context of the album, which flies from Afrobeat to psych rock to James Brown funk to Fantasia-soundtrack whimsy across its 18 tracks. You could call it a trip.

The ArchAndroid is most certainly spearheaded by the wildly ambitious 24-year-old with a taste for equestrian formal wear at its center. But Monae also rallied a host of disparate collaborators for the album including OutKast’s Big Boi, indie funk freaks of Montreal, and Diddy, who is co-releasing the album with Monae’s ownWondaland Arts Society imprint. During a recent phone chat, we talked with the one-time drama school kid about bossing around Sean Combs, sci-fi, and her single with Big Boi, “Tightrope”, which was recently named Best New Music. You can listen to The ArchAndroid in its entirety over at Janelle Monae’s MySpace right now.

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