Chapter Two
COLLABORATIONS (IN TIME AND SPACE)
“Ethos is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology. The Greeks also used this word to refer to the power of music to influence emotions, behaviours, and even morals.” - Wikipedia
Collaboration – not stardom or cocksure display – is at the center of her ethos. While she has played – exquisite - backup to dozens of well-known performers, she has also forged an ongoing conversation with numerous longtime collaborators including Chris Bruce on guitar, Jebin Bruni on keyboards, and Abe Rounds on drums and percussion, as well as Steve Coleman, Oliver Lake, Jason Moran, Sanford Biggers, Walter Kitundu, Matana Roberts, Toshi Reagon, Marc Ribot, Deantoni Parks, John Cale, Charlotte Braithwaite…
“Meshell Ndegeocello is a band,”
she has said multiple times.
“I feel that musicians are in a fellowship, and that fellowship is a responsibility.”
“…I realized that the collective – the places you can get to harmonically if everyone is playing together and creating a tapestry – seemed much more interesting than having these ‘guns blazing’ kind of musicians…” [With this ‘cooperative aesthetic’] everyone has their part and if we all do it, then the collective larger picture will be much better. Then you’re not doing it for you. You’re doing it for the listener. [And for] the greater cosmic thing if you want to believe in that too.”
SONGWRITER, SINGER
Inspired by those that have come before her – by poets such as Countee Cullen, June Jordan, and Claude McKay, and texts like speech by Angela Davis – you might say that Ndegeocello has “collaborated” in time as well as in present spaces.
She has described the influence of Gil Scott-Heron and spoken word:
“For a musician, it was the first time I had seen that sort of spoken word style with such interesting music that borderlined on improv.”
Ideas emerge from within as well as without.
“…when I'm not listening to other people's music, I hear all these other things in my head…I'm just constantly hearing melodies or grooves or structures. Not words, but just instrumental vignettes inside of my mind.”
Through her poetic storytelling and spare, fierce, and tender lyrics, what does she write about?
Sexual desire.
Power dynamics surrounding race, gender, sexuality, class and religion.
Beauty.
Vulnerability.
Drug overdoses.
Women’s empowerment.
Homophobia in the black church.
The complexity and radical power relationships and love.
She makes music that moves straight into your blood and your bones.
Here, two descriptions of her sound and effect:
[4]
[5]
COVERS:
“Classical musicians live by the music that's written, and somehow bring their own personality into it. I approach covers the same way. I think I love doing covers, ‘cause it allows me to…take really good songs…and just filter them through my imagination.”
Known for her arresting covers that are, at once, a kind of collaboration and resuscitation, Ndegeocello has revisioned songs by Prince, Tina Turner, Sade, Marvin Gaye, George Clinton, Hector Lavoe, Fela Kuti, Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, Gil Scott-Heron. Someone likened her covers to “revelatory improvisation, in the spirit of John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things."
Ndegeocello’s most recent tribute album is Pour une âme souveraine: a dedication to Nina Simone.
“…I just try to concentrate on the music, that's why I called it a dedication. I wanted to make something that shows an appreciation for all the amazing music that Nina Simone did. It's not a reenactment or a retelling of anything…”
“…doing the Nina Simone [work] was being able to take other people's words and bring them to life out of my body…”
Bringing it Home
“…I have tried in new ways, with new rage and hope, to connect to whomever is listening, and to underline, capture, express, and illuminate stories that might engage and bring in, create understanding or empathy, comfort and explain. I am certain some will fail and others succeed. But there is much living in the attempts, in the trying…”
Here, then, some of the great attempts:
Ventriloquism (2018)
Comet, Come to Me (2014)
Pour une âme souveraine: a dedication to Nina Simone (2012)
Weather (2011)
Devil’s Halo (2009)
The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams (2007)
Dance of the Infidel (2005)
Comfort Woman (2003)
Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape (2002)
Bitter (1999)
Peace Beyond Passion (1996)
Plantation Lullabies (1993)
Comet, Come to Me (2014)
Pour une âme souveraine: a dedication to Nina Simone (2012)
Weather (2011)
Devil’s Halo (2009)
The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams (2007)
Dance of the Infidel (2005)
Comfort Woman (2003)
Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape (2002)
Bitter (1999)
Peace Beyond Passion (1996)
Plantation Lullabies (1993)
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/meshell-ndegeocello-mn0000402351/discogr...
Notes:
from "No More Water | The Fire Next Time: The Gospel According to James Baldwin"
Park Avenue Armory, 2018 (c) Da Ping Luo. Directed by Charlotte Brathwaite
from "No More Water | The Fire Next Time: The Gospel According to James Baldwin"
Park Avenue Armory, 2018 (c) Da Ping Luo. Directed by Charlotte Brathwaite
“I have this belief, now, that a song is just the lyric, the melody, and the beat. I feel like those are the things that connect with the people…To me music is audible collage and I’m just trying to make all the colors and shapes work.”
© 2024 The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, All Rights Reserved.