MeShell Ndegeocello Still All Over The Map, But There's Finally A Musical Direction

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 11, 2010 7:40PM

For much of her recording career, the producers who've worked with MeShell Ndegeocello have either tried to contain the wit behind her incisive socio-political lyrics or meld the myriad styles that influence her own musical output. As a younger artist, Ndegeocello tended to work best with a producer that could provide clarity to the cacophony swirling in her head. Our favorite start-to-end records from her prior to last year's Devil's Halo were 1999's Bitter and 2003's Comfort Woman.

Devil's Halo benefits from Ndegeocello's personal maturity; she turned 40 two years ago and married her girlfriend in Canada. The mélange of hard funk, rock, jazz, reggae, soul, ambient music and whatever else she's listening to at the moment is still there, but there's a focus and underlying theme running through the songs that wasn't there with earlier releases like Plantation Lullabies, Peace Beyond Passion or later experiments like 2005's Dance of the Infidel. Devil's Halo is also an intensely personal record; Ndegeocello's most autobiographical album since Bitter.

As scattershot as Ndegeocello's recordings have been, live she's a galvanizing performer, one who wears her emotions on her sleeve, with bass playing that's both the funkiest this side of Bernie Worrell and as nuanced as Jaco Pastorius.

MeShell Ndegeocello plays two concerts Saturday, October 16, at the Old Town School of Folk Music. She'll also be leading a bass seminar at 2 p.m.