DANCE OF THE INFIDEL: a sacred journey

Dance Of The Infidel: a sacred journey with me'shell n'dege ocello by David John Farinella June 2005 ©Performing Songwriter

Walking down a busy street in Berkeley, California, where she’s made her home of late, Meshell Ndegeocello contemplates the music on her latest release, THE SPIRIT MUSIC JAMIA: DANCE OF THE INFIDEL. “You don’t have to intellectualize the music,” she says as crosswalk warnings sound in the background. “The music is to be felt. We’re not going to write history paper or deconstruct social issues. I got together with my best friends, people I love who play amazingly, and made some music that you hopefully feel in your gut. That’s the most important thing.”

The eight songs found on INFIDEL—seven originals and a stunning cover of “When Did You Leave Heaven” sung by Lalah Hathaway—do just that and are sure to draw nods of approval from serious jazz aficionados as well as her R&B fans. As you would expect from a musician who cut her teeth as a bassist, many of the songs on INFIDEL are built from the bass up. At the same time, Ndegeocello has given free reign and space to the assortment of horn players—Oliver Lake, Don Byron, Joshua Roseman, Wallace Roney, Kenny Garrett, Ron Blake and Oran Coltrane—as well as pianist Michael Cain.  What makes this an interesting collection is that Ndegeocello (who is changing her name to Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur this summer) played on just over half the tracks and didn’t sing on any. Indeed, she handed vocal responsibilities to Hathaway on “Heaven,” Sabina Sciubba from Brazilian Girls for the haunting “Aquarium” and Cassandra Wilson on “The Chosen.” “I pretty much wrote and arranged everything on there, except for the remake of 'Heaven.' This was more of a project to get all these people together to show their gifts. I think that’s the only thing I want to be credited for—I got all these people in one room,” she says with a laugh. “That was the enjoyment for me.” The inspiration behind recording “Heaven” came from guitarist Doyle Bramhall II, who had played with Ndegeocello on a number of occasions. “He played me this tape of Johnny 'Guitar' Watson singing the song, but he was playing piano,” Ndegeocello remembers. “It was the most amazing track. I think I listened to it every day for about a month and I was like, 'I’ve got to redo this tune.' The lyrics moved me, the way he talks about love being this angel and forsaking heaven just to love this person is such a beautiful metaphor. I was moved by it very deeply.” Ndegeocello raves about the musicians that play on INFIDEL. “To me, Michael Cain is one of the most incredible pianists I’ve ever heard, and the reason why is he’s very subtle. If he wasn’t there you would miss him, but while he’s there he’s not overbearing,” she says. “I think that’s great for horn players, he’s there to dance with them, to change the harmonic structures, but he’s very subtle so that the solo is always out front. I knew that he was the person I wanted with me through the whole project. Someone like (bassist) Matthew Garrison, nobody plays like him, so that was an easy call. Wallace Roney, to me, is so expressive and melancholy.” Picking those players to bring these ideas to live, she adds, was natural. “All of them have these innate and unique qualities that were at my disposal,” she says. “I can’t really explain it, I’d hear it in my head and I knew who was supposed to be on the tune and I just went with that feeling.” Having that trust in the players was freeing to her from a songwriting and composing point of view. “The ability of the musicians to take these small cells, I called them, and make these glorious beings is what they do. I picked them because they are the best at what they do, the best at improvisational jazz,” she explains. “So it was great for me to sit back, think about the sounds, the audible sound quality and all those things and I was very happy.” Ndegeocello’s jump to jazz on this release might surprise some who are not familiar with her work with John Mellencamp to Basement Jaxx to Joe Henry to Blind Boys of Alabama. Given that background, she explains, it didn’t take courage to move into a new genre. “It’s just my DNA,” she says with a laugh. “It’s just who I am. I like all kinds of music and love meeting new people. I think my personality puts me in these situations more than anything else. I’m ready and open and I just love to play no matter what style of music, as long as the person has good vibrations and we can order some good food. It’s really that simple to me.” —David John Farinella