Meshell Ndegeoecello - The Omnichord Real Book - 2 x Vinyl LPs

2023

2024 Grammy Award Nominee:
• Best Alternative Jazz Album: The Omnichord Real Book

Acclaimed GRAMMY-winning multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello makes her Blue Note Records debut with The Omnichord Real Book, a visionary, expansive, and deeply jazz-influenced album that marks the start of a new chapter in her career. Following her 2018 album Ventriloquism, Meshell returns with an album of original material that taps into a broad spectrum of her musical roots. The Omnichord Real Book was produced by Josh Johnson and features a wide range of guest artists including Jason Moran, Ambrose Akinmusire, Joel Ross, Jeff Parker, Brandee Younger, Julius Rodriguez, Mark Guiliana, Cory Henry, Joan As Police Woman, Thandiswa, and others.

    Even though it was created by enough people to fill a starship...this is as intimate as any of Ndegeocello's previous albums. It's almost as varied as any of them in sound, naturally veering from sheer folk-soul to grimace-inducing funk to charging Afrobeat. Almost every song is informed by a kind of heartache with prevailing feelings of disorientation, regret, and grief. Ndegeocello always owns it, whether she says 'Pain colors everything I touch' with her chest or laments her 'extraordinary pain,' maybe with a nod to Songs in the Key of Life.
    -Andy Kellman, AllMusic.com, 4.5/5 stars (The AllMusic 2023 Year in Review - Best of 2023)