Me'shell Ndegeocello - Deep Neo Soul

Me'shell Ndegeocello (born Michelle Lynn Johnson, August 29, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, bassist, and vocalist. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, hip hop, reggae, R&B, rock, and jazz. 
She has received significant critical acclaim throughout her career, and has had ten career Grammy Award nominations. She has been credited for having "sparked the neo-soul movement.

She was born in Berlin, Germany, to army Sergeant Major and saxophonist father Jacques Johnson and health care worker mother Helen. She was raised in Washington, D.C. where she attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Oxon Hill High School.

Ndegeocello adopted her surname at the age of 17, which she says means "free like a bird" in Swahili.
Ndegeocello honed her skills on the D.C. go-go circuit in the late 1980s with the bands Prophecy, Little Bennie and the Masters, and Rare Essence.
  

She unsuccessfully 
tried out for Living Colour's bassist position, vacated in 1992 by Muzz Skillings. 
Going solo, she was one of the first artists to sign with Maverick Records, where she released her debut album, Plantation Lullabies. This recording presented a distinctly androgynous persona.

Her biggest hit is a duet with John Mellencamp, a cover version of Van Morrison's "Wild Night", which reached #3 on the Billboard charts. Her only other Billboard Hot 100 hit besides "Wild Night" has been her self-penned "If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night)", which peaked at #73 in 1994. 

Also in 1994, Ndegeocello collaborated with Herbie Hancock on "Nocturnal Sunshine," a track for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool. 
The album, meant to raise awareness and funds in support of the AIDS epidemic in relation to the African American community, was heralded as "Album of the Year" by Time magazine.

She had a No. 1 Dance hit in 1996 with a Bill Withers cover song called "Who Is He (and What Is He To You?)" (briefly featured in the film Jerry Maguire) as well as Dance Top 20 hits with "Earth", "Leviticus: Faggot", "Stay" and the aforementioned "If That's Your Boyfriend.. Last Night)".

Ndegeocello played bass on the song "I'd Rather be Your Lover" for Madonna on her album Bedtime Stories. Ndegeocello was also tapped, at the last minute, to perform a rap on the same song. This came after Madonna and producers decided to remove Tupac Shakur's rap.
Her music has been featured in a number of film soundtracks including How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Lost & Delirious, Batman & Robin, Love Jones, Love & Basketball, Talk To Me, Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls,The Best Man, Higher Learning, Down in the Delta, The Hurricane, Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom, and Soul Men.

She has appeared on recordings by Basement Jaxx, Indigo Girls, and The Blind Boys of Alabama. On The Rolling Stones' 1997 album Bridges to Babylon she plays bass on the song "Saint Of Me". 

On Alanis Morissette's 2002 album Under Rug Swept, she plays bass on the songs "So Unsexy" and "You Owe Me Nothing in Return". 
On Zap Mama's album ReCreation (2009), she plays bass on the song "African Diamond".

She can also be seen in the documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, singing The Miracles' "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" and The Temptations' "Cloud Nine".

 

In the late 1990s, she toured with Lilith Fair. She also did a remake of the song, "Two Doors Down" on the 2003 release, Just Because I'm A Woman: The Songs of Dolly Parton.

Ndegeocello was also a judge for the 2nd annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.

Her song “Tie One On” was chosen as the Starbucks iTunes Pick of the Week on February 23, 2010.
In 2002, Ndegeocello collaborated with Yerba Buena on a track featuring Ron Black for the Red Hot Organization's tribute album to Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. Proceeds from the album went to various AIDS charities, per the Red Hot Organization's mission.

                  
 
In June 2010, she contributed a cover of U2's "40" to the Enough Project and Downtown Records' Raise Hope for Congo compilation. 
Proceeds from the compilation fund efforts to make the protection and empowerment of Congo’s women a priority, as well as inspire individuals around the world to raise their voice for peace in Congo.

In 2010, Ndegeocello contributed to the essay anthology It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living, edited by Dan Savage and Terry Miller in the vein of the It Gets Better Project.

Last release in 2011, her 10th studio album, “Pour une âme souveraine”, a dedication to fellow musician Nina Simone. She reworked some of the tracks made famous by the iconic musician. 
Guests on the album include Sinead O’Connor, Lizz Wright, Valerie June, Tracy Wannomae, Toshi Reagon and Cody ChesnuTT.

I love her slammin' & creative music… For me, her best album is "Peace Beyond Passion", release in 1996. 
I hope she will keep on the Passion.

Steely Dan is an American rock band consisting of core members Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop. Rolling Stone has called them "the perfect musical antiheroes for the Seventies."

The band's music is characterized by complex jazz-influenced structures and harmonies played by Becker and Fagen along with a revolving cast of rock and pop studio musicians. Steely Dan's "cerebral, wry and eccentric" lyrics, often filled with sharp sarcasm, touch upon such themes as drugs, love affairs, and crime. 

The pair is well-known for their near-obsessive perfectionism in the recording studio, with one notable example being that Becker and Fagen used at least 42 different studio musicians, 11 engineers, and took over a year to record the tracks that resulted in 1980's Gaucho — an album that contains only seven songs.

Steely Dan toured from 1972 to 1974, but in 1975 became a purely studio-based act. The late 1970s saw the group release a series of moderately successful singles and albums. They disbanded in 1981, and throughout most of the next decade Fagen and Becker remained largely inactive in the music world. During this time "a cult following" remained devoted to the group.

In 1993, the group resumed playing live concerts; later Steely Dan released two albums of new material, the first of which earned a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. They have sold more than 30 million albums worldwide and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2001.

& For me... It was just :) a wonderful first time...

Funk, Jazz, Rock or Soul : Charles Pasi - Better With Butter - Uncaged

This dreamer observes as much the past as the present to better build and understand the future.          

Charles Pasi is a French-Italian and if he grew in Paris, he spent many of his summers across the Atlantic to listen to Miles Davis, Otis Redding, Ray Charles or Bob Dylan.

Down from his 27 years, he speaks to us about a time that some less than thirty years should better known. When he begins the music at the age of 17, Charles doesn't choose an electric guitar but a harmonica.

Against the advice of all, he follows his idea and takes singing & instrument lessons. Having joined a Gospel group, then having studied music in Italy, he picks up several springboards and prizes, skims the jam-sessions and, having ended finalist of International Memphis Blues Festival in 2006, begin an international tour ( United States, Canada, Russia, Hungary, Benelux, Italy, Spain) with his first album, Mainly Blue.

If his first opus was tinged with Blues, his successor Uncaged, is unclassifiable.

Charles often delivers dark texts on melodies with diverse colors. Passionate and enthusiastic, the arrangements are a mixture of influences Blues, Funk, Jazz, Rock or Soul, following the example of Wild it up, title frank as an uppercut in tones Red Hot Chili Peppers or Fume Against the Hatches...

A happy marriage to discover with Better With Butter, generosity in the rough which will make you sway hips as well as on a James Brown and will tempt you to see again all Bertolucci or Ferreri.

The singer distills with talent his wide influences and invites in the passage the legendary Archie Shepp's saxophone for two titles!

The phrasing clashing of the saxophone mixed with the captivating voice of Charles Pasi not betrays a second that half a century separates both men. Once upon a time Charles Pasi, delivers with Uncaged a poignant testimony of what can be the music of yesterday handed back with current tastes and skillfully mixed by a current passionate person. Charles Pasi is a young talent to followed closely.

Archie Shepp

- Pioneer of the free Jazz, the saxophonist evolved towards a music merging the constituents of the Jazz since his origins,Superstar of the saxophone Jazz,Archie Shepp (born in 1937) is, since his debuts, a free musician!

An Alive JAZZ legend ;)

Acoustic Guitar : Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams

The story of the surfing champion reconverted  to songwriter … Sober  acoustic guitar, a languishing stalk of voice, a velvet rhythmic, ever simplistic simple melodies, Johnson seems to have been inspired by some warm sand to draw the inspiration of his ballads.

'Love is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart', sings Johnson, laying out the mission statement for In Between Dreams in its opener “Better Together”. 
  
It tends to focus on relationships.This could be a good or a bad thing as far as you’re concerned, but it has never really been the substance that matters with Jack Johnson—as the cliché goes, it’s all in the delivery.

First single 'Sitting, Waiting, Wishing' is Johnson’s most well-realized song and it contains plenty of the subtle chord changes and even subtler wordplay that made that song great. 

Highlights are 'Better Together', the tune is infectious and his voice is dreamy, 'Banana Pancakes', because it's such a cute concept and such a rainy summer day anthem, and 'Never Know' my favorite on the whole album.

 


The guitar sounds so amazing, it blows me away every single time. I cannot get tired of this song.

It is a wonderful album with music that is mellow, fun, romantic and in general, just enjoyable. What I like best about his music is that it can be all of those things without being sappy, boring or repetitive.
It is great music to listen to and relax while doing whatever :)

Jack Johnson I think is one of the rare artists that seem to be able to really paint a picture in your mind. And I mean a clear vivid image. It just puts you in such a happy and relaxed mood. My favorite time to listen to it… at the beach.

Enjoy the Ride!