Meshell Ndegeocello
MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO has survived the best and worst of what a career in music has to offer. She eschewed genre for originality, celebrity for longevity, and musical trends for musical truths. Fans have come to expect the unexpected and follow her on sojourns into soul, R&B, jazz, hip-hop, rock, all bound by the search for love, justice, respect, and resolution. Those sonic investigations have defied and redefined the expectations for women, for queer artists, and for black music for over 30 years and she remains one of few women who write the music, sing the songs, and lead the band.
A bass player above all else, Meshell brings her warm, fat, and melodic groove to everything she does. She has earned a Grammy award along with numerous nominations, and has played alongside the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Alanis Morrisette, James Blood Ulmer, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Tony Allen, John Medeski, Billy Preston, and Chaka Khan. As for her own bass-playing influences, she credits Sting, Jaco Pastorius, Family Man Barrett, and Stevie Wonder.
Meshell is always grateful for the opportunity to share the stage and believes music is a fellowship. She looks to spread that gospel with every creation and collaboration.
1993 Plantation Lullabies, Maverick
1996 Peace Beyond Passion, Maverick
1999 Bitter, Maverick
2002 Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape, Maverick
2003 Comfort Woman, Maverick
2005 The Spirit Music Jamia: Dance of the Infidel, Shanachie
2007 The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams, EmArcy
2009 Devil’s Halo, Downtown
2011 Weather, Naïve
2012 Pour une Ame Souveraine: A Dedication to Nina Simone, Naïve
2014 Comet, Come to Me, Naïve
2018 Ventriloquism
"It’s an adventurous, challenging album that few would undertake, and even fewer could deliver without Ndegeocello’s poetic vision."
SF Chronicle
"Her musical sensibilities are about as close to flawless as it gets, her instincts finely honed and her style refreshingly indescribable. - 8 out of 10 stars"
Popmatters
"Even more poignant is Prince's "Sometimes It Snows in April," mercifully placed early in the sequence, rather than at the end, so as not to leave the listener a weeping wreck. - 4 out of 5 stars"
All Music
"she pulls new beauty out of favourites from yesteryear. - 7 out of 10"
Exclaim
"Meshell Ndegeocello's Ventriloquism turns commonly held conceptions of canon on their head - 4 out of 5 stars"
Slant Magazine
"these are bold offerings – creative, unpredictable and rich with Ndegeocello’s sensual contralto."
The Guardian