Meshell Ndegeocello - Pour une âme souveraine - A dedication to Nina Simone '2012; 2016

Tracks list

Acclaimed jazz-funk bassist and neo-soul chanteuse Meshell Ndegeocello tenth
studio album, Pour une âme souveraine (‘For a sovereign soul’),
is a dedication to the fearless creativity and spirit of Nina Simone, the feisty
songwriter/bassist is joined by her regular touring band of guitarist Chris
Bruce, keyboardist Jebin Bruni and drummer Deantoni Parks, all creating
radically reworked versions of songs made famous by the iconic singer. The
recording also features guest vocal performances from Lizz Wright, Sinead
OConnor, Valerie June, Tracy Wannomae, Toshi Reagon and Cody ChesnuTT. 

Meshell Ndegeocello is wary of giving the wrong impression with “Pour Une
Âme Souveraine: A Dedication to Nina Simone”, her 10th studio album.
“I don’t want to necromance,” she said recently. “I
feel like that’s going on a lot.” 

It’s a useful disclaimer given the album’s subject, the mercurial,
commanding singer and pianist Nina Simone, who died in 2003 and has since had
her music appropriated by ad agencies, club remixers, Kanye West and assorted
other cultural properties, including a biopic reported to be starting production
soon, with Zoe Saldana in the title role. 

Ms. Ndegeocello, a singer-songwriter of searching candor and an electric bassist
of mesmerizing skill, decided to make her album after playing a sold-out tribute
concert in March, at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in
Harlem. Plunging into Simone’s legacy — studio recordings, concert
footage, a searing memoir and the recent biography “Princess Noire”
— she recognized a strain of rage born out of frustration. “I think
I can relate a little bit,” she said. 

But where the hallmark of Simone’s style was a defiant moral clarity, Ms.
Ndegeocello has long centered her own work in a shroud of ambiguity.
“I’m really unclear,” she acknowledged. “Emotionally,
intellectually, I’m in this place where it’s definitely gray.
It’s ethereal.” The difference manifests in her treatment of
“Feeling Good,” one of many songs that Simone didn’t write
but seemed to own. “It’s such a weird song,” Ms. Ndegeocello
said, “and my title should say ‘Feeling Good, question mark.’
I definitely wanted to challenge that optimism.” 

Producing the album with her longtime guitarist, Chris Bruce, she placed
emphasis on the brooding cohesion of a band that otherwise features Jebin Bruni
on keyboards and Deantoni Parks on drums. At her label’s behest she
welcomed a small array of guest vocalists, including Toshi Reagon, who
demolishes a rave-up version of “House of the Rising Sun”; Sinead
O’Connor, who wryly simmers on “Don’t Take All Night”;
and Cody Chesnutt, who’s radiantly soulful on “To Be Young, Gifted
and Black.” For “Be My Husband,” a song whose psychological
subtext made it a priority for Ms. Ndegeocello, she used the rustic young folk
singer Valerie June. 

But the most intriguingly shaded voice on the album belongs to Ms. Ndegeocello,
who apprehends Simone’s legacy with curiosity and stubbornness —
as well as a keen appreciation of her political stance, what Ms. Ndegeocello
called her “blurry sexuality,” her independence as a black woman and
her fearsome integrity as an artist. “I mostly wanted to pay tribute to
her humanity, her incredible chops as a musician, and her song styling,”
she said. “She made them her own and added a quality that can never be
reproduced.” (Nate Chinen, New Yourk Times) 

Meshell Ndegeocello, bass
Chris Bruce, guitar
Jebin Bruni, keyboards
Deantoni Parks, drums 

01. Meshell Ndegeocello - Please Dont Let Me Be Misunderstood (4:06)
02. Meshell Ndegeocello - Suzanne (4:25)
03. Toshi Reagon - Real Real (feat. Toshi Reagon) (3:07)
04. Toshi Reagon - House of the Rising Sun (feat. Toshi Reagon) (3:36)
05. Meshell Ndegeocello - Turn Me On (3:08)
06. Meshell Ndegeocello - Feelin Good (4:09)
07. Sinead OConnor - Dont Take All Night (feat.Sinead OConnor) (3:27)
08. Lizz Wright - Nobodys Fault But Mine (feat. Lizz Wright) (2:36)
09. Meshell Ndegeocello - Be My Husband (feat. Valerie June) (3:31)
10. Meshell Ndegeocello - Black Is the Color of My True Loves Hair (feat.
Valerie June) (3:52)
11. Meshell Ndegeocello - See Line Woman (feat. Tracy Wannomae) (5:50)
12. Meshell Ndegeocello - Either Way I Lose (3:28)
13. Meshell Ndegeocello - To Be Young, Gifted and Black (feat. Cody Chesnutt)
(3:15)
14. Meshell Ndegeocello - Four Women (5:02)

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