Meshell Ndegeocello: RFI

from a recent LA Times review:

Accompanied by guitarist Chris Bruce, keyboardist Keefus Ciancia and drummer Deantoni Parks, Ndegeocello only occasionally stuck to Prince’s original arrangements. More often, she’d retain a single identifiable element — the slap-bass line in “Pop Life,” for instance — then adjust everything else around it. For “Little Red Corvette,” she played the verses fairly straight but introduced a fresh chord progression in the chorus. Several songs received comprehensive makeovers, including “Dirty Mind,” which the musicians reconfigured as jittery, Devo-style post-punk, and “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” presented Thursday as a lovely acoustic reverie.

For all the liberties she took, though, Ndegeocello seemed in communion with the deeper currents running through Prince’s songs: the open-ended questions about faith and romance and sex, and about the intersections between them. She closed with two moody avant-soul readings of tunes from the “Purple Rain” soundtrack: first “I Would Die 4 U,” then “Purple Rain.” As she sang both, you could hear her still making decisions about music she’d already loved for decades.

-- Mikael Wood

Bitter is one of my favorite's of anyone, a top-5 desert-island one for me. So if Devil's Halo is anything like it, I have to get that.

"favorites"

http://therickeyvincentblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/meshell-ndegeocello-does-prince.html

Funk book author Rickey Vincent liked the show too:

I have never bothered to listen to Ndegeocello but the clips of her and Jason Moran's "new project that transforms (Fats) Waller's rollicking stride piano style into contemporary dance music" on this NPR segment sound intriguing:

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/13/136274480/jason-moran-takes-fats-waller-back-to-the-club

is she going to release an album with prince covers ?

I haven't read that anywhere yet

great live performer. great great great great

note that i may have already said that itt

came to post some prince cover videos

at one point she says something like "he was better before he found jehova" to a mixture of boos and cheers, haha, brilliant

can't wait till she comes back the UK, easily my best show in recent memory

my favourite, i think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJRpsUasUjI

i think this is officially the summer of prince

Apparently she's doing a Gil Scott-Heron cover show in NYC on the 6th!

New album coming out- press release excerpt below:

Produced by Grammy-winner Joe Henry (Aimee Mann, Solomon Burke, Ani DiFranco), Weather is the latest addition to Meshell’s diverse catalog. A strikingly organic record, the album finds Meshell experimenting with the sparse, orchestral melodies paired with thoughtful lyrics, all performed by a band of fearsome musicians. The album opens with the title track “Weather,” a spacey, soulful groove that sets the stage for the rest of the record. Tracks like “Oysters” and her cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Chelsea Hotel” find Meshell constructing hushed ballads, centered around mournful piano. These tracks are juxtaposed with Meshell’s defiant, soulful stomps on songs like “Rapid Fire” and “Dirty World.” The album also features all-star collaborations with the likes of Chris Connelly (ex-Revolting Cocks, Ministry), Benji Hughes, and Joe Henry.

I'm not a fan of Joe Henry's staid, antiseptic NPR-safe soul production efforts. Hopefully this will avoid those production technique straightjackets

there was a possibility cee-lo was gonna be on this..

hope it's got a lot of chris dave or at least deantoni parks...

http://www.hardcandymusic.com/2011/08/meshell-ndegeocello-dirty-world.html

new track available

this is gooooood

very promising

This isn't doing a lot for me right now? Maybe just cause I want good summer vibes at the moment. Might grow on me tho.

I'm diggin' it. Initially wanted it be more straight-forward, but it's cool.

I'm not sure about Dirty World. I still love her voice and that bassline is like wow but the rest of the song doesn't really hang together around it. Especially the chorus. But that bassline...

She seems an artist particularly suited to tardy genuflection.

LOL. Am listening to Comfort Woman and Man of My Dreams for the first time tonight, and both are Terrific!!! Man of My Dreams seems esp. well done!

Article 3!

like, LJ needs to listen to ^this song rfn!!!

Yeah Man of my dreams is amaze.

The whole Cookie -> Comfort Woman -> Man of My Dreams -> Devil's Halo run is brilliant.

who do u see as a fantasy meshell collab??

Todd Edwards?

dâm-funk?

paul white?

Metallica

metalndegeocello

ben frost

Metallica

rob trujillo on bass and meshell on lead bass

John Mellen...oh wait

Idk, maybe Steve Arrington?

Drugs, get in the outloud room. I have to play you something.

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/30/141666180/first-listen-meshell-ndegeocello-weather

NPR is streaming Weather

love this album. "oysters" is spellbinding

oh cool, this album rules just like all of her albums rule

Bit like a proggier Bitter.

Woah, I wasn't looking at the track list, and the "Chelsea Hotel" cover comes out of nowhere!

kind of thought this was maybe her most direct/immediate album since the '90s. the lyrics are just gorgeous.

the moment on "oysters" when she murmurs "everybody talking 'bout changing the world / the world ain't ever gonna change / but you can always change it for me..." <3 <3 <3

prince covers : http://uheardat.blogspot.com/2011/08/meshell-hearts-prince.html

a friend of mine just played drums with her on a gig (not a meshell gig, backing up arooj aftab...anyone go to that?)

The NYC club listing below is not clear--are they playing Pakistani music?

An incredible incredible stupendous stupendous group of humans will walk and run and dream and weep through an evening of songs by Arooj Aftab and Grey Mcmurray.

The Sea Gazing Family Band for the night of October 29th 2011 will be:

Arooj Aftab
Mathias Kunzli
Joshua Valleau
Conor Elmes
Norman Vladimir
Grey Mcmurray
and Meshell Ndegeocello

pakistani jazz?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLvAAzEOqM0

I'm loving the Prince covers gig...sounds incredible...who she playing with??

On the Prince gigs she's been accompanied by guitarist Chris Bruce, keyboardist Keefus Ciancia and drummer Deantoni Parks,

Liked my first listen to Weather last night...