Meshell Ndegeocello North Sea Jazz 13 July 2024

Meshell Ndegeocello North Sea Jazz
13 July 2024
Meshell Ndegeocello (vocals, bass); Justin Hicks (vocals); Josh Johnson (saxophone); Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet); Chris Bruce (guitar); Jebin Bruni (keyboards); Kyle Miles (bass); Abe Rounds (drums).
The music of the singer, composer, and multi instrumentalist is too diverse to simply list as jazz.. Her versatility was firmly on show on her latest album, 2023’s The Omnichord Real Book. The album, which was produced by saxophonist Josh Johnson, features many beloved North Sea Jazz regulars, such as Cory Henry, Jason Moran, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Brandee Younger.
At the festival, Ndegeocello brought a different performance on each evening. On Friday she honored the founder of both Cricket magazine and the Black arts movement, Larry Neal, with songs by NTU Troop, Eugene McDaniels and Public Enemy.
On Sunday she performed all the songs of her first album Plantation Lullabies. She apologized for having been such an asshole the previous night, which was totally unnecessary, because the performance had been superb. Listen for yourself. The reason why she apologized was that she had been in a sad mood, she told, because she had brought the ashes of her deceased father to the festival that day. Her father had told her that he found that she could call her self a true musician after she had performed on North Sea Jazz for the first time.