Meshell Ndegeocello: RFI

I don't think I've been as vocal in my love for Comfort Woman as for TWHMMTMOMD or Devil's Halo, but it's the single best album to have sex to ever made by anyone.

I would concur, if this album didn't exist:

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0000/187/MI0000187639.jpg

(Which I would recommend it to anyone who wants to listen to some slow cosmic sexy soul music.)

But Comfort Woman is definitely up there, yeah.

soooo....where do I start? I own Peace Beyond Passi and nothing else. I've been dipping into Bitter, Comfort Women, Weather.

bitter and comfort woman are great introductions imo. I also think you'd loooooove devil's halo

Comfort Woman is as good a place as any. It's worth noting that most of her albums tend to have a distinct vibe from one another, so there isn't really any one album that can be taken as representative of her work. The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams might be something of an exception because it's an expansive tour de force whereas the rest of her albums tend to hone in on doing one thing. But I can also see finding that album overwhelming.

My problem with Bitter is it's too lyric-focused, which isn't always her great strength.

I agree to a point, but also every melody on bitter breaks my heart

I'll have to go back to it. I haven't listened to any of her 90s work in a long time.

im catching up with some of her stuff that ive missed. its interesting how much of a 'better' singer she has become over the years. but also the one thing that i think will always be a barrier for her is that shes still too limited/mannered as a singer. it doesnt matter ultimately, if the songs are good enough, but its like shes permanently going for 'gracefully wounded'.

dirty world is my shit however.
(soundcloud is pretty excellent at guessing what i want to hear next lol)

I need a new Meshell album.

in the meantime is it time for an albums poll?

agreed and yes

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXqorhCDP9u/

includes: an excerpt of her cover of "tender love," potentially from a new album coming out in november?

ohhhh it's a covers album https://www.instagram.com/p/BWd2EJrjntB/

incidentally holy shit at that tracklist

1. wonder if i take you home
2. Nite& day
3. Sometimes it snows in april
4. Waterfalls
5. Atomic dog
6. Sensitivity
7. Funny how time flies
8. Tender Love
9. Don't disturb this groove
10. Private dancer
11. Smooth Operator

!!!

yesss

https://media.giphy.com/media/26n6YSEVjKzqE4Jqw/giphy.gif

https://soundcloud.com/officialmeshell/sometimes-it-snows-in-april/s-gR5VM

and a lyric video for "tender love"

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

album out 3/16

gonna b so gooooood

i'm so hyped, these are both so gorgeous

in particular her "sometimes it snows in april" is just killing me

wowwwwwwwww @ the "sometimes it snows in april" cover

https://www.npr.org/2018/03/08/590336350/first-listen-meshell-ndegeocello-ventriloquism

1980s songs slowed down with interesting vocal touches and instrumental flourishes.

Reference to Neil Young Harvest listening at time of recording makes sense too

very good and cool record

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/meshell-ndegeocello-ventriloquism/

great review brad. i've listened to the "sometimes it snows in april" cover nearly every day since it came out. the whole album is quite something.

thank you!!

atomic dog 2017 is so awesome lol. possibly even more dog-like than the orginal, but not quite as dogg-like as snoop's "what's my name"

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8232751/meshell-ndegeocello-ventriloquism

She talks about making covers her own and her take on Bruno Mars (“karaoke “)

I listened to this album 4 times today. Clearly something I needed.

yeah, this album is cool. i think my favorite is "sensitivity."

this album is a real beauty. it is one of those few cover albums where most of the covers are better than the originals.

I get very strong Sade vibes from Meshell's voice on this album. But of course the music here is not muzak at all.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2018/04/17/meshell-ndegeocello-fugazi-go-go-growing-dc/?utm_source=Editorial+and+Events&utm_campaign=e001012fe8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_612a4959fd-e001012fe8-402537885

On her DC go-go and more roots

Nice gig last night at Kennedy Center. Some cuts from new album plus Nina Simone ones too. She had a photo of her deceased sax-playing Dad onstage, and talked about going through her records earlier in the day at her family’s place. I like her on keyboard as well as bass.

She's gonna be back at Kennedy Center Sunday this time with a version of her James Baldwin Tribute. In 2016, she did a stage musical, “Can I Get a Witness? The Gospel of James Baldwin” at the Harlem Stage in New York. Also per article : This version will be a concert, forgoing the costumes, blocking and sets of the original production but including the spoken narration drawn from Baldwin’s book and the songs written by Ndegeocello, Toshi Reagon, Justin Hicks and Staceyann Chin.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/music/meshell-ndegeocello-gives-a-reading-from-the-scripture-of-james-baldwin/2018/12/13/8c60e91c-f7e4-11e8-8d64-4e79db33382f_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ed24111fc73c

“When I was younger,” Ndegeocello says by phone from her current home in Brooklyn, “I couldn’t understand why people looked down on my mother just because she didn’t have much education, why my father was so bitter about not advancing in the military the way his white colleagues did, why I loved the music in church but disliked the fire-and-brimstone sermons. When I read ‘The Fire Next Time,’ it all started to make sense. Baldwin was a game changer in creating a language for the marginalized.”

Tickets were kind of pricey and I didn't splurge for it tonight. Have seen her a number of times, but I am still kind of regretting missing this James Baldwin tribute show of hers.

Saw her play 90 minutes of Prince songs at Paisley Park last night, it was awesome of course. More thoughts soon.

The songs: When Doves Cry, Let's Pretend We're Married, Let's Work, Strange Relationship, Love 2 the 9s, If I Was Your Girlfriend, Sexy Dancer, Hot Thing, When You Were Mine, Pop Life, Tamborine, I Wanna Be Your Lover, Starfish & Coffee, Purple Rain

!!!!!

I saw an ad for a Roots/Questlove fest and she doing Prince songs is on the long bill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGhpyGf-XlE

Mellow Ndgeocello doing Pink Moon works well enough, although not amazing

I like her mellow approach to covers from this era - Pink Moon, Waterfalls, Suzanne...

Now I want to hear Nina Simone doing Pink Moon

of all the nick drake covers i know one of the best. especially the instrumentation. i love the drums here. the only other nick drake cover i remember having liked was calexico's "clothes of sand".

Ndegeocello is going to collaborate at Kennedy Center in DC with Ronald K Brown dance company in October. Tickets right now are only available to Kennedy Center subscribers I think

Hailed as a “modern dance savior” by the New York Times, Ronald K. Brown returns to fuse the form, rhythm, and history of African dance with contemporary and urban dance styles.
In Mercy, a Kennedy Center co-commission (the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, Carolina Performing Arts, UNC Chapel Hill, and The Joyce Theater’s Stephen and Cathy Weinroth Fund for New York), Brown finds an ideal collaborator in visionary vocalist, composer, and bassist Meshell Ndegeocello. In their first collaboration, Brown’s choreography fuses with Ndegeocello’s music to focus on compassion—which leads one to have mercy. As Ndegeocello performs live, dancers embark on a physical journey toward justice that resolves in joy and surrender

Also: on the Modern Love Bowie trib, which follows his connection to soul, funk, and jazz, according to the press release: she covers "Fantastic Voyage," but maybe she'll bring out well-concealed strengths---some other tracks are already posted here; maybe the whole thing will be---not seeing a release date here, but release says this Fri. https://bbemusic.bandcamp.com/album/modern-love

, Somewhere in my digitrove is a track she intended for a self initiated Carly simon covers album.... I suggested attitude dancing because noone would choose that song... Email me and if i dig it out I will send u the link... 'It's really good!!!!!!

Carly did not like my suggestion incidentally

Thebunnybra✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧

New album on Blue Note in June…the first track off it is superb prog funk…really looking forward to this

https://pitchfork.com/news/meshell-ndegeocello-announces-new-album-shares-new-song-virgo-listen/amp/

"virgo" is crazy good

it is