Friday, March 15, 2024, 7:30 PM

Street and Davis Performance Hall, Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre

Programmed by guest curator Shirlette Ammons

$25 general admission
$10 students with ID and youth 18 and under
15%-25% subscription discounts available

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"...Ndegeocello’s lyrics muse on large concepts — faith, science, politics and above all, desire — as private struggles, while her music constantly transforms itself. There’s a lot of funk in her songs. Her main instrument, and the one she sometimes played onstage..., is the bass. But funk is only one component of her music, which can be as transparent as fingerpicked guitars and voice, as aggressive as power-chorded rock, as spacious as reggae and as cerebral as jazz tunes moving in odd time signatures.” 

— The New York Times

Traversing soul, R&B, jazz, hip-hop, and rock, Grammy winner Meshell Ndegeocello’s work is bound by the search for love, justice, respect, and resolution. The multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter has defied and redefined the expectations for women, queer artists, and Black music for over 30 years, and she remains one of few women who write the music, sing the songs, and — bass in hand — lead the band. 

Ndegeocello makes her Blue Note Records debut in June 2023 with The Omnichord Real Book, a visionary, expansive, and deeply jazz-influenced album that marks the start of a new chapter in her trailblazing career. Following her 2018 covers album, Ventriloquism, Ndegeocello returns with an album of new original material that taps into a broad spectrum of her musical roots. The Omnichord Real Book was produced by Josh Johnson and features a wide range of guest artists, including Jason Moran, Ambrose Akinmusire, Joel Ross, Jeff Parker, Brandee Younger, Julius Rodriguez, Mark Guiliana, Cory Henry, Joan As Police Woman, Thandiswa, and others.

“It’s a little bit of all of me, my travels, my life,” says Ndegeocello. “My first record I made at 22, and it’s over 30 years from then, so I have a lot of stored information to share.” Reflecting on the impact that the forced stillness of the pandemic lockdown had on her, she says, “I must admit it was a beautiful time for me. I got to really sit and reacquaint myself with music. Music is a gift.”

“This album is about the way we see old things in new ways,” Ndegeocello explains. “Everything moved so quickly when my parents died. Changed my view of everything and myself in the blink of an eye. As I sifted through the remains of their life together, I found my first Real Book, the one my father gave me. I took their records, the ones I grew up hearing, learning, remembering. My mother gifted me with her ache, I carry the melancholy that defined her experience and, in turn, my experience of this thing called life calls me to disappear into my imagination and to hear the music.” 

Ndegeocello first appeared on a Blue Note record a decade ago with her stunning feature on The Consequences of Jealousy from Robert Glasper’s Grammy-winning 2012 album, Black Radio. Two years later she collaborated with Jason Moran on ALL RISE, a vibrant reimagination of Fats Waller’s music where Ndegeocello was both featured vocalist and producer. Reflecting upon time spent with her parents’ record collection during her childhood, she recalls, “I loved going through the records and seeing the Blue Note insignia. I stay away from the word ‘jazz,’ it’s a really heavy word, but I am so moved to be on a label that is about self-expression.”

This is Meshell Ndegeocello's first performance at the Moss Arts Center.