Meshell Ndegeocello: RFI

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

this is kind of great: https://samgendel.bandcamp.com/track/anywhere-feat-meshell-ndegeocello

holy shit this album

holy shit is right

So excited. She was great the other night, though I think only played one song from this that hadn't been released yet. Lots of Plantation Lullabies, in a Ventriloquised mode, and an astounding Atomic Dog.

this is excellent, "Omnipuss" is such a total groove

Amazing album, up there with her very best IMO. Wild to think that it is 9 years since Comet, Come To Me, though listening to this it’s like she never went away.

On first few listens this feels like it manages to locate a sweet spot between her exploratory vibes and more comforting tendencies - it often sounds “far out” but never challenging, always warm and welcoming.

whoa I thought the title was just a lark and then HUMMM that first sound, the Omnichord! this is rad

holy shit yeah this is a legit masterpiece. last track such a perfect pocket

that's great to hear,been looking forward to this one

so this wasn't instantly one of my favorite albums of hers, but the live show was so incredible and beautiful. the fifth dimension didn't particularly stand out for me on the album but felt like the centerpiece live, levitated the whole place (and the set was levitate-y to begin with). her band is perfect and it makes me kinda sad that there were only a couple of hundred people, they should be playing for thousands. but it was really chill, with lots of cute queer couples half-dancing.thought i was gonna have to duck out a lil early to get to work but no support so they wrapped by 10!

She was great the other night, though I think only played one song from this that hadn't been released yet.

i think this is a Japan-only bonus track called The Atlantiques (it's great).

if you get a chance to see her drop everything srsly i feel transported in a way i haven't in a really long time.

okay, i am coming around to the idea that this is one of her best albums, which is saying a lot. because obviously, this would be anyone else's masterpiece.

the mix is too balanced and needs more extremes of contrast, it falls short in this area where her previous work excels (eg Cookie, The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams). some of the textures that were bold, almost industrial live are a little blanded down. ultimately, that's what i'm unhappy with about the album, granted i haven't listened in full quality yet, or on anything better than kind of okay headphones (which is all i got atm).

at first i was a little disappointed that her personality doesn't dominate the record a little more, that it showcases her collaborative aspect instead, that she situates herself in the midst of the ensemble and doesn't play a ton of bass, and contributes something more like omnipresence than assertiveness. i love that about it now.

Anyone have full credits for this? I was trying to figure out who plays drums on 'ASR', and lo and behold the writing credits include Tony Allen. Wonder if she actually recorded with him before he passed, or wrote on top of a drum track that came from elsewhere?

there were only a couple of hundred people, they should be playing for thousands. but it was really chill, with lots of cute queer couples half-dancing

that sounds ideal, esp. compared to the dinner place she played here. I was stuck in a sightline where a cymbal obscured her face the whole time. pretending it was a cool mask, briefly raised when hit, didn't quite balance out the distancing effect.

also wow @ that song Justin Hicks performed, looks like it's still in their setlists? I swear that was as vulnerable a vocal and lyric as I've ever heard, if it never gets recorded/released I'll be devastated.

Yeah there was lots of room to move around, even at the front. it was totally sweet. Justin was great and got a lot of love from the crowd!

here's the song @ 1:31:30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QksG8uGp1Tg

she is beyond amazing here -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl1R_Cn_L98

She looks great!

Never heard that Mark Hollis record, sounds good

<3

I love this record, top three record.

Is this an album track, or upcoming? Amazing band lineup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFAWrJ6EC8I

it's the japanese bonus track for the omnichord real book, but she's put it out as a single now

So her Sun Ra tribute album is up for preorder:

https://redhot.bandcamp.com/album/red-hot-ra-the-magic-city