Meshell Ndegeocello No More Water Gospel Of James Baldwin 2xLP Gold Vinyl Signed

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Meshell Ndegeocello No More Water Gospel Of James Baldwin 2xLP Gold Vinyl Signed New Sealed
She does it again a modern masterpiece GRAMMY Winner
No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin is a 2024 studio album by American singer-songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello, released on August 2, 2024, by Blue Note Records. It is a tribute album to African-American thinkers and writers, including the titular namesake James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. The album was preceded by songs "Raise the Roof", "Thus Sayeth the Lorde", and "Travel".The album received a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Jazz Album

Meshell Ndegeocello*....she is a ""poor righteous teacher"'.....which I believe/feel her goal is accomplished that on all her projects. "M-Ndege" is a muse from the ancestors who channel her for wonderful humane expression sonically. To try and define this album misses the point....to listen "without prejudice" seems to be always be her goal for her audience thus this work. THis project like all of her projects are a sit down with an extremely intelligent Human Being (if U are the smartest person U know then U need to loose Urself)....and channeling "James Baldwin/JB" in this gem of intellect which is priceless with Miss Jenita Miller, StaceyAnn and others adding wonderful alternative voices and vibes. Meshell Ndegeocello*....keep doing your work....the Ancestors and the Universe are fond of U! I must see you in concert....and it will happen....I'm not a fan(natic) but appreciate Ur intellect as a fellow musician...so thanks for the introspection and thoughtful spaces you provide myself and others to communicate in. Timm & OdD-ZeRo

No More Water followed Meshell Ndegeocello's Sun Ra celebration The Magic City by four months and arrived on the centennial birthday of its subject, the incomparable writer and Civil Rights activist James Baldwin. It closes an informal trilogy of commemorative recordings from Ndegeocello that began with Pour Une Âme Souveraine, dedicated to Baldwin's beloved Nina Simone. At the same time, No More Water is an outgrowth of a theatrical production the musician presented in 2016 at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse. Impelled by Baldwin's The Fire Next Time -- an essential text that gave her a profound comprehension of racism, classism, and the effects of both on her family -- Ndegeocello conceived the performance as a Pan-African church service with an ensemble of instrumentalists, singers, and orators. Many of the participants are involved here, and Baldwin's words are woven into eight of the 17 tracks, whether sung by the pained if undaunted Justin Hicks on the rippling funk of "On the Mountain," or recited by Jamaican poet and activist Staceyann Chin on "Baldwin Manifesto I" and "Baldwin Manifesto II." The pieces that don't quote Baldwin are often equally charged, freighted with anguish. Take Chin's declamatory "Raise the Roof." Backed only by phantasmal saxophone and effects from Josh Johnson, Chin, tightly coiled, rails against police brutality, a rigged justice system, and "a lack of white accountability parading as a penal system in which 40% of those incarcerated come from a group which only consists of 12% of the entire fucking population." Just as gripping is the brief folk song that follows, "The Price of a Ticket" -- what could be called a ditty if Ndegeocello wasn't making a gentle appeal to be spared by an armed officer. In a way, the album is, to use a description Ndegeocello used for her fourth full-length, an anthropological mixtape. It's constantly switching gears in terms of structure and sound. Songs slowly unfurl or unexpectedly intensify, quickly settle into a groove or change direction, are adjoined with spoken interludes and interjections, and yet a sense of flow is maintained. In addition to its funk and folk components, the album blurs 21st century jazz and soul with elements of soukous, samba, dub, and art rock. Additionally, Baldwin isn't the only writer/activist from which the album gleans influence. "Thus Sayeth the Lorde" pays tribute to Audre Lorde, the fellow writer/activist who challenged Baldwin on gender in a historic conversation published in Essence magazine. Chin most certainly embodies the "feminist warrior" aspect of Lorde's self-identity in the subsequent "Tsunami Rising." For all the pain the material relates, there's an unwavering sense of communality and even some joy; the uplifting "Love" is a reminder that Ndegeocello remains a masterful hook writer and reinterpreter. No More Water concludes with a looped and layered mantra for bookworms. The words, voiced by multi-instrumentalist Paul Thompson, shift and repeat for over a minute, echoing Ndegeocello's hope that the album provokes listeners to read Baldwin's undiminishable writings and take them to heart.