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Freedom in music
By BRIAN ORLOFF Meshell Ndegeocello's first St. Petersburg concert is a last-minute affair, announced last week. But that fits Ndegeocello, whose organic music fuses jazz, blues and poetic hip-hop into ponderous political statements. Ndegeocello is renowned for her free-form jams, a freedom that pervades her concerts and her politics. "When we play live, the music evolves and grows naturally," she e-mailed from a tour stop in Raleigh, N.C. (To preserve her voice, Ndegeocello conducted all interviews via e-mail.) "Nothing is arranged exactly like the record. In fact, I've been told that our band is one of the few where we sound better than the record. I'm blessed with incredible musicians who are kind enough to lend their talents to my vision." Ndegeocello's latest album, Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape, finds the singer-songwriter-bassist sampling political activists and writing intimately about her life. The album tackles politics without compromising the funk. "I write about my experiences, whether it is love or politics or just trying to grow. Though this seems ultra-personal to some, most others find that they can relate to my stories," she wrote. "The voices I sampled on Cookie helped me to create the intergenerational dialogue that I think this walk through life is." Ndegeocello supports access to music on the Internet as a way around the financial demands of an industry that she says demands that "art is marginalized . . . literally, limited to profit margins." "To me, the Internet democratizes a music industry that has been ruled by dictators called programmed radio, image and greed," she wrote. "The solution is easy enough -- give consumers the power to choose what tracks they want on a subscription basis, restructure profit sharing between artists and companies. When I turn on the radio, I can hear the top 100, but when I go on the Internet, I can hear the best music from the last 100 years. Creatively, that's what I want to have the freedom to tap into." Next month, Ndegeocello will serve as musical director in a benefit for the Gay Men's Health Crisis, a nonprofit AIDS support organization for men, women and children, in New York City. "We will bring together African music and gospel and jazz and funk to tell a story of perseverance and struggle and triumph in the face of adversity," Ndegeocello wrote. "To me, given that AIDS plagues the African and African-American communities, mainly due to lack of access to sex education and health care and all the myths about AIDS being a gay disease, it is an honor to contribute to this project." A similar sense of community surfaces in her music, and that is what attracts fans, she says. "I just try to express myself and be funky, and if folks are feeling that, they'll come out to the show or pick up the record and have an experience. That's what it's all about -- having your own experience, not something that's been dictated to you by some marketing strategy or demographic determination. "Breaking free of the idea that we are all just here to accumulate products has everything to do with revolutionizing oneself, honoring your soul and singing the truth as you know it to the world." MUSIC PREVIEWMeshell Ndegeocello, 8 tonight, Goldstar Bar at Jannus Landing, 242 First Ave. N, St. Petersburg. $17.50-$20. (727) 550-0419.
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From the wire |
