Mercurial
and masterful, Meshell Ndegeocello has survived the best and worst of what a
career in music has to offer. She has eschewed genre for originality, celebrity
for longevity, and musicals trends for musical truths. She has lived through
the boom and bust of the industry and emerged just as she entered -
unequivocally herself. Fans have come to expect the unexpected from Meshell,
and faithfully followed her on sojourns into soul, spoken word, R&B, jazz, hip-hop,
rock, all bound by a lyrical, spiritual search for love, justice, respect,
resolution, and happiness.
Groove
driven, infectiously melodic and lyrically meditative, Meshell’s latest album,
Comet, Come To Me, finds her returning to the same well of creativity that
launched her career.
Her 11th release, it is possibly a culmination of all
previous work: lush, vocal, seeking, wise, collaborative, and driven by the
signature bounce and precise pocket of Ndegeocello on bass. The album features
special guests Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) and Doyle Bramhall, along
with long-time collaborators Christopher Bruce (guitar) and Jebin Bruni (keys),
and Earl Harvin on drums. Assured of her place as an authentic musical thinker
and an uncompromising artist, Comet continues to discover, examine, and explore
all that music has to offer her and how she can return the gift.
“Comet,
Come To Me was a little labor but a lot of love. It was made with my favorite
collaborators, and it felt good to channel the sounds in my mind after having
Nina in residence for a while,” says Meshell, referencing her last album, a
tribute to Nina Simone. The collaborative process that comes with making an
album especially inspires her. “When I’m writing songs and recording the demos,
I’m having my own awesome experience in my attic, or on a plane, or in a hotel
room, just making my beats on my laptop. Then I get together with these people
that I have an intimate musical relationship with, and we bring the songs to
life.”
In
addition to the twelve new tracks on Comet, Come to Me (15 including the bonus
tracks available on her website), fans of Meshell’s will no doubt be intrigued
by her cover of Whodini’s “Friends”, a seminal hip-hop track originally
released in 1984. Commenting on her inspiration for choosing this song, Meshell
explains: “I play with a lot of people who play improvisational music and jazz,
and I thought it would be fun to take something that they might think of as
easy or straight-forward, and do something different with it. I also like how
language is morphing, and 'friends' is such a malleable word, I don't even know
what it means anymore.”
In
addition to her own recording, Meshell has been expanding her repertoire as a
producer, producing three albums in the past year: British/Trinidadian poet and
musician Anthony Joseph's new album, Time; Jason Moran's Fats Waller Tribute,
All Rise: A Joyful Elegy For Fats Waller (due Sept 2014); and a new album by
Grammy-nominated Ruthie Foster, also set for release this fall.
On Tuesday June 3, 2014 Ndegeocello will prestent An
Evening with Meshell Ndegeocello (Album Release Party!) featuring songs from
her new album, Comet, Come to Me
w/ a
special opening set of Songs from Plantation Lullabies, Peace Beyond Passion,
Bitter and Cookie at
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