Meshell Ndegeocello keeps it real on her debut release for Blue Note

Genre-bending singer-songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello just received a Grammy nomination for “The Omnichord Real Book,” a visionary and deeply jazz-influenced album that marks her debut on the venerable Blue Note Records label.

Produced by saxophonist Josh Johnson, the disc showcases Ndegeocello’s frequent collaborators, including Johnson, keyboardist Jebin Bruni, guitarist Chris Bruce, and drummers Abe Rounds and Deantoni Parks. “I really love the musical interaction — the playing off of each other,” said Ndegeocello, who will perform Jan. 19 in an SCP Jazz concert as a special guest with Makaya McCraven. “It’s such a divine experience. Playing music is one of the few spaces where I feel genderless and raceless.”

Also appearing on various songs are guitarist Jeff Parker, vibraphonist Joel Ross, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, harpist Brandee Younger, drummer Mark Guiliana, bassist Burniss Travis II, keyboardists Julius Rodriguez, Corey Henry and Jason Moran, and vocalists Joan As Police Woman, Sanford Biggers, Hanna Benn, Thandiswa and the HawtPlates (Justin Hicks, Kenita-Miller Hicks, and Jade Hicks).

Ndegeocello tries to create music that “musicians enjoy playing and that’s open enough so that they can truly explore” the music’s rhythmic, harmonic and melodic contours, she said of the disc, which is nominated in the best alternative jazz album category. “And when the audience can dance, move and experience transcendence while we are playing live, it feels like I have purpose.”

The album’s title was inspired by the Omnichord, an electronic instrument that produces a harp-like chiming timbre. During the pandemic, Ndegeocello received an Omnichord as a gift while she was busy working on several television scores, mostly on computers. 

Composing in this manner began to take a toll. “I found that working on the computer started bringing my spirits down,” she said. “The Omnichord gave me a way to work out melodies and ideas without having to look at a screen. I’ve been working on computers since my fourth record. I wanted to stop looking at the music and just play and hear the music.”