plorentz's Full Review: Dance of the Infidel by Me'Shell NdegeOcello
I seek refuge in the Lord of daybreak
From the evils among His creations
From the evils of darkness as it falls
From the evils of the troublemakers
From the evils of the envious when they envy
- Sura 113 (The Dawn)
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Never one to make it easy on her audience, Me'Shell N'Degeocello has certainly given me lots to Google in the liner notes (not to mention song titles) of her latest project, a(n almost) straight-up jazz ensemble called Spirit Music Jamia, and their debut album provocatively titled Dance of the Infidel. Even more provocative, at least in these Islamophobic times, are the Koranic verses (in their original Arabic) gracing the pages of the booklet amidst the various musician credits. Look! The legendary Jack DeJohnette played drums on "Luqman". Look! It's a menorah shaped text-graphic with the translation-caption "There is no God but God." Hey, what (or who) is "Luqman" anyway?
It may be best to treat liner notes like sleeping dogs, and let them lie - the further I investigated the various key-words, the more eerily fundamentalist were the texts I discovered. Then again, I felt comforted in that my prejudice towards such blatant expressions of religious faith in music extended beyond "Worship Jams" commercials with bunches of little kids dancing around and singing boy-band karaoke versions of "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" and "Shout to the Lord" and approving Christian moms talking about "a message we can all enjoy."
But really, unlike that kind of McWorship*, peddled to children with increasing (and disturbing) ferocity, where the music is often secondary - no more than a vehicle for the delivery of no-thought-required, bumper-sticker-ready catch-praises, on Dance of the Infidel, the re-printed Koranic verses are not ends in and of themselves, but rather starting points - invocations for eight mostly instrumental jazzy explorations. And the actual lyrics of the three songs with words are comfortably secular (or at least spiritually ambiguous).
But enough of all this. The real story here is that Me'Shell N'Degeocello, the woman who may forever be best known as John Mellencamp's bass-playin', duet-singin', head-shavin' sidekick on his cover of Van Morrison's "Wild Night" ten years ago, the woman who pushes her cool, dark vision of soul in a new direction with each album, from the bittersweet funk of Peace Beyond Passion to the orchestral nocturnes of Bitter, from the damn-near-gangsta Cookie to the sexy bedroom jams of Comfort Woman - Me'Shell N'Degeocello has finally made the jazz album anyone who knows who she is knew she had to make eventually.
And, as one might expect, it's pretty damned good, and not just because of high profile guest spots by - gasp - Jack De Johnette, or - oooh - Oran Coltrane, or - aaah - Cassandra Wilson. It's an album that makes absolute sense in the context of N'Degeocello's career thus far. After all, her music has always been about grooves, atmospheres, and moods; it's always been as sensual as it is soulful. She's always been the kind of artist who could sing a line like "you're my earth" and get away with it.
Spirit Music Jamia gives N'Degeocello lots of room to flex her band-leading and groove-inventing chops even as she subtracts herself somewhat from the actual performance side. She doesn't sing on any of the tracks, and we miss her voice, especially on "The Chosen" - Cassandra Wilson delivers the song with her typical mystical warmth, but the words ("come bare your soul to me, and ravish my heart") fairly beg for N'Degeocello's deeper, more amelodic reading. There are even a few tracks on which she doesn't play at all, and perhaps the most conspicuous and memorable bass performance on the album - on "Al-Falaq 113", one of triptych of 12 minute jams (whose title refers to the Sura I quoted above) - is performed by Matthew Garrison (formerly of The M-Base Collective) with an insidious, slinky cool.
Still, this is clearly N'Degeocello's vision, and even with a rotating cast of players - most notably Oliver Lake and Don Byron on horns, Chris Dave on drums, and Matthew Garrison - she maintains a high level of focus and continuity - the album has a groovy, meditative flow throughout and an understated sense of the exotic. The eastern-flavored horn melodies and polyrhythms of "Luqman" seem a natural outgrowth of the opening "Mu-Min", while Sabina Sciubba's distant, accented vocals on "Aquarium" combine with skittering electronic rhythms to recall the classic mid-90s trip-hop sound.
But as forward-thinking as this album is, it's also got an eye on its forebears. Not only do the gorgeous "Papillon" and "Dance of the Infidel" give nods to the cool bop of the 60s (Oran Coltrane's soloing on the latter is practically a tribute to his illustrious father), and the record closes with Lalah Hathaway's lovely, loungey rendition of the big-band-era ballad "When Did You Leave Heaven?"
Indeed, for as varied as the record's influences are, it is wonderfully coherent, and seems to grow even more so with repeated listens; in fact, this may be one of N'Degeocello's most consistently satisfying projects. Absolutely, I would love to hear her do more singing in this context, but with Spirit Music Jamia, she's found another voice with which to convey her vision of the soul that's just as compelling, and may grow even more with the further development of this group (they're currently on tour, which bodes well). Freed of the limitations (which she always played fast and loose with anyway) of today's pop and R&B music, N'Degeocello has taken a courageous leap into both jazz and relative imagelessness (there are no artist photos anywhere), and her ambition has paid off. I can't wait to hear what happens next. Welcome 2 the Dawn, according to Me'Shell.
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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
"Dance of the Infidel" by Me'Shell N'Degeocello/Spirit Music Jamia
Shanachie Records
Released 6/21/05
Produced by Me'Shell N'Degeocello and Bob Power
63 min.
SONGS: Mu-Min - Al-Falaq 113 - Aquarium - Papillon - Dance of the Infidel - The Chosen - Luqman - When Did You Leave Heaven?
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*Note: I mean no sweeping generalization of Contemporary Christian music, and I recognize that just as with pop music in general, there are manufactured artists and there are real artists, and there's a crucial difference between the two.
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