Meshell Ndegeocello at The Freight

"The world needs more musicians like her: creatively restless and ambitious." – NPR Music 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 the few women who write the music, sing the songs, and lead the band. A bass player above all else, Meshell brings her warm and melodic groove to everything she does. She has earned Grammy awards 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. Ndegeocello’s first two Blue Note albums – The Omnichord Real Book (2023) and No More Water: The Gospel Of James Baldwin (2024) – have persuasively reasserted her status as an unparalleled force in modern music. With her third, Synonym, Ndegeocello reaches even higher to deliver one of the most ambitious projects in her impressive discography by expanding her cast of collaborators to include an astounding rollcall of featured guests. At its core, the album captures her ingenuity at reimagining and reconceptualizing songs written and performed by other musicians. Exploring expressions of desire, care, heartbreak, friendship, disappointment, and love in all forms, the thoughtfully curated collection of covers ranges from 1960’s folk and ’70s soul, country, and pop to ’80s R&B and electro-boogie, early-’90s alternative rock, and early-aughts hip-hop. As a multi-instrumentalist – bass being her primary instrument – songwriter, singer, producer, and conceptualist, Ndegeocello emits enough star power to light up the entire solar system. Nevertheless, on Synonym she surrounds herself with an array of guest artists that compose a whole new galaxy of gleaming talent including Cynthia Erivo, Cat Power, Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, WILLOW, Lianne La Havas, Laura Lee, Moses Sumney, Destin Conrad, Nick Hakim, Robert Glasper, Lizz Wright, Emily King, Madison Cunningham, Bill Callahan, Chris Thile, ANOHNI, Evann McIntosh, and Ink.