American neo-soul bassist, vocalist and songwriter, Meshell Ndegeocello, finished the tour of her new album No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin at London venue KOKO as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival on its opening night.
Ndegeocello (Swahili for “free like a bird”) has always been known for mixing spoken word and poetry with her memorable bass lines and soulful melodies, but this ambitious new project is a conceptual album that draws inspiration from the life and writings of James Baldwin to honour Baldwin’s centennial. It explores themes of identity, spirituality, and social justice which are central to Baldwin’s legacy. Ndegeocello only spoke briefly about the impact that Baldwin has had on her life – mostly stating gratitude for his teachings.
Recorded readings in between some of her songs gave insight into some of Baldwin’s words and context to the themes of this album but paved the way for the music to hold the spotlight.
Vocalist Justin Hicks featured throughout the evening, both doing the opening support set and joining her on stage for the entirety of the performance. His voice was smooth and soulful and blended beautifully with Ndegeocello’s bass playing which provided a rich, grounding element throughout the show, effortlessly blending groove and melody. Her unique approach just focuses on subtlety and emotion, allowing the instrument to convey profound narrative depth while anchoring the ensemble’s sound.
The “heavy” nature of some of her material – for instance, the song What Did I Do? was still conveyed in such a way that the emotion reached the audience without adding weight. Her message was seen as only positive even though the lyrics were filled with pain and confusion.
There was such passion on stage, resonating through the lyrics of songs like Trouble, referring to the overall state of the world and On the Mountain, full of chaos and frantic solos and Hatred which called out the root of hatred as the alternative to “dealing with pain”.
The evening was truly cathartic and hopefully the aftershock – those waves of emotional release – will be felt by all in attendance for a little while.
