Author, composer, singer and bassist Meshell Ndegeocello invested ten years of work in this tribute to the work of James Baldwin, whose hundredth birthday would have been celebrated on August 2. Writer, poet, thinker, activist (for civil and queer rights), Baldwin is less quoted than evoked through the original texts of poets Hilton Als and Staceyann Chin invited to collaborate on some excerpts from this album at the crossroads of progressive jazz, funk, R&B and spoken word. Ndegeocello has gathered around her musicians who give her groovesall in nuances on the precious What Did I Do?modern on the following Pride I And IIsoul-jazz on the long and captivating Disorderjewels at the heart of this album which, moreover, would undoubtedly have benefited from being shortened. As necessary to hear as they are, the long passages recited — on Raise the Roof at the beginning of the album, during the eight minutes of Tsunami Rising — weigh down the musical proposition.
Click here to see an excerpt.
To see in video