‘Seeing tracks from Ventriloquism performed live reinforced my belief that it represents the gold standard of cover albums.’

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In a shocking case of poor event etiquette – the type I tend to abhor – I stumbled in late to Meshell Ndegeocello’s gig at Under The Bridge on Wednesday. The England vs Croatia match, combined with delays on the District Line, contributed to this outcome.

I arrived mid-way through Ndegeocello’s rendition of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Suzanne’, sung with beautifully echoic vocals, and was immediately rapt.  She followed this with her bluesy take on Nina Simone’s ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’, delivered with stabs of guitar. What strikes me about Ndegeocello is that she performs with the same quiet intensity of the likes of Cohen, Nina Simone, and Joan Baez. She bleeds musicianship with a style that lands on the right side of self-indulgent. She doesn’t give a fuck about the mainstream (listen to her seminal Plantation Lullabies and you’ll see what I mean), and is refreshingly casual in her image.

As expected, Ndegelocello treated her effusive audience with cuts from her latest studio album Ventriloquism – a unique re-imagining of 1980s/90s R&B hits through the lens of her musical personality. She sang TLC’s ‘Waterfalls’, brushed with melancholic guitar licks, with a pained retrospection. Her version feels less of a generalised life-lesson and more of a deeply personal lament. Her woozy, ethereal cover of Al B. Sure’s ‘Nite and Day’ surgically removes the melody and lyrics from its 1980s kitschy skeleton. She gives it a lush, ambient arrangement with a breathy sexual intimacy.

Seeing tracks from Ventriloquism performed live reinforced my belief that it represents the gold standard of cover albums. The highlight of the set was George Clinton’s ‘Atomic Dog’, a raucous funk number reimagined with country flavour and a more mellow groove.  I’m fully aware that the lyrics are nonsense. However, Ndegeocello’s rendition makes me question whether they have a subtlety and philosophical depth which I am not not perceptive enough to realise.

Meshell Ndegeocello was performing as part of the Innervisions Festival – a festival produced by AGMP  which brings soul, jazz, blues, funk, reggae, and hip hop to various venues across London.

(Image copyright: AGMP)