Meshell Ndegeocello – The Omnichord Real Book (2023) [FLAC 24bit/88,2kHz]

Meshell Ndegeocello – The Omnichord Real Book (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:12:25 minutes | 1,27 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Blue Note Records

Acclaimed GRAMMY-winning multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello makes her Blue Note Records debut with ‘The Omnichord Real Book’, a visionary, expansive, and deeply jazz-influenced album that marks the start of a new chapter in her career. Following her 2018 covers album ‘Ventriloquism’, Meshell 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 been nearly a decade since Meshell Ndegeocello last released a new and original album. Although we did get an excellent collection of covers in 2018 (Ventriloquism), it was 2014’s Comet, Come to Me that last gave the world a glimpse of Ndegeocello’s highly unique creative approach. That album found Ndegeocello exploring a relatively genre-agnostic (if somewhat indie-rockist) approach alongside her regular collaborators and a clutch of guests. Although the set was just a bit more than EP length, it showed an artist still unwilling to be hemmed in by anyone’s expectations of what her music should sound like. Fast forward to 2023: Ndegeocello has lost her parents, suffered through the isolation and creative restraints of a pandemic, and come out on the other side with a new label (Blue Note) and an album, The Omnichord Real Book, that is both her boldest stylistic exploration yet, but also one that’s resoundingly true to the creative journey she’s been on since the ’90s. To be clear, Omnichord both is and is not “a pandemic album”; while certainly inspired by the reality of the last few years, Ndegeocello has taken that energy and funneled it into a kaleidoscopic and energetic batch of tunes that celebrate individuality and collaboration, with more than a dozen guests scattered throughout the album’s 18 tracks. And yes, her new home at Blue Note is an appropriate one: not because she’s decided to make that late-career “guess I should make a jazz album” move that many middle-aged artists make, but more because the stylistic definition of “jazz” has, over the past few years, moved closer and closer to the soulful, funky futurism that Ndegeocello has trafficked in for decades. The eight-minute “Virgo” doesn’t arrive until the last third of the album, but it is an expansive declaration of intent, an intensely rewarding piece, and probably the clearest distillation of what Ndegeocello is doing on Omnichord. Steeped in Afrofuturism and anchored by throbbing synth grooves and staccato funk guitar, the song also features Brandee Younger’s harp, and a swirling Farfisa organ played by Julius Rodriguez; it’s a robust open dialogue between extremely talented musicians, but also one mediated by Ndegeocello’s insistent space-brained vision; that it gets reprised at the end of the album in an evocative arrangement by jazz icon Oliver Lake only underlines the strength and mutability of the material here. Of course, Ndegeocello’s robust, whispery singing voice is still a primary ingredient, and it’s in top form throughout the album—evocative and occasionally ethereal but always intensely expressive. And on a few numbers she gets a great assist from South African singer Thandiswa Mazwai, most compellingly on the driving funk workout of “Vuma.” – Jason Ferguson/

Tracklist:

1-1. Meshell Ndegeocello – Georgia Ave (02:39)
1-2. Meshell Ndegeocello – An Invitation (02:20)
1-3. Meshell Ndegeocello – Call The Tune (01:54)
1-4. Meshell Ndegeocello – Good Good (03:28)
1-5. Meshell Ndegeocello – Omnipuss (02:51)
1-6. Meshell Ndegeocello – Clear Water (04:35)
1-7. Meshell Ndegeocello – ASR (07:38)
1-8. Meshell Ndegeocello – Gatsby (04:21)
1-9. Meshell Ndegeocello – Towers (03:35)
1-10. Meshell Ndegeocello – Perceptions (02:14)
1-11. Meshell Ndegeocello – THA KING (00:27)
1-12. Meshell Ndegeocello – Virgo (08:38)
1-13. Meshell Ndegeocello – Burn Progression (04:01)
1-14. Meshell Ndegeocello – oneelevensixteen (02:49)
1-15. Meshell Ndegeocello – Vuma (03:00)
1-16. Meshell Ndegeocello – The 5th Dimension (05:24)
1-17. Meshell Ndegeocello – Hole In The Bucket (05:30)
1-18. Meshell Ndegeocello – Virgo 3 (06:53)

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