The American writer and activist James Baldwin was born 100 years ago this year, on 2 August 1924, in Harlem, New York. In his many essays, novels, short stories, plays and poems, he fought as a black American for equality and respect, for recognition and the right to be heard.
Meshell Ndegeocello’s tribute to Baldwin is a musical odyssey, a mixture of the spoken word, song, church service, celebration, testimonial and call for action, a well-judged, powerful vocal statement using Baldwin’s words as its basis. The songs’ titles refer to Baldwin’s books and words, the added “e” at the end of Thus Sayeth The Lorde a clever device to shoehorn in the black feminist and socialist Audrey Lorde in order to update and overcome Baldwin’s now-dated views on feminism.
This set began in 2016 during a performance at the Harlem State Gatehouse honouring Baldwin and has since developed organically. It opens with some well-paced funk and gospel, On the Mountain a particularly spacey experience. It then develops into an indignant and angry response to recent events, before evolving into music of beauty and respect and ending as ambient soul.
The list of musicians below is collective, with three tracks merely featuring the powerful poet Staceyann Chi on vocals and Josh Joshua on saxophone and effects. But when the numbers, increase, the effect is mesmerising, notably on the driving, percussive Pride II, on the soulful Eyes, powered by Justin Hicks’s strong vocals, and on the evocative, heartfelt Trouble. The spoken-word pieces pack a necessary punch, but it is the more open, fluid songs that work best.
As a CD, it is difficult – and demanding – to listen to in one lengthy go, but as a double album that paces itself, this set is overwhelming. As critic Hilton Als says in the sleeve notes, “The music you hear in No More Water, is Jimmy talking to Meshell and his words meeting the language of her sounds and then coming out again through a multitude of voices, a multitude of sounds and thoughts that bring Jimmy back and give him – finally – his whole and true self, that which he offered up, time and again, if only we knew then how to listen.”
Discography
Travel; On The Mountain; Baldwin Manifesto I; Raise The Roof; The Price Of The Ticket; What Did I Do?; Pride I; Pride II; Eyes; Trouble; Thus Sayeth The Lorde; Love; Hatred; Tsunami Rising; Another Country; Baldwin Manifesto II; Down At The Cross (76.32)
Ndegeocello (b, v); Paul Thompson (t, pc); Josh Johnson (ts); Jebin Bruni, Julius Rodriguez, Jake Sherman (p, org, kyb, pc); Chris Bruce (g, elg); Abe Rounds (d, pc, v); Hilton Als, Staceyann Chin, Caroline Fontanieu, Alicia Garcia, Justin Hicks, Kenita Miller (v). Hurley, New York, c. 2023.
Blue Note 602465 215045
