This legacy of searching Black invention, Ndegeocello seems to imply, is the center of her realness. (The album closes with a reprise of this theme arranged by jazz elder Oliver Lake, and executed in part by saxophonist Josh Johnson and drummer Mark Guiliana.) Along with frequent collaborators like guitarist Chris Bruce and drummer Deantoni Parks, the album features guests like Jeff Parker, whose electric guitar weaves through the shape-shifting journey of "ASR" Ambrose Akinmusire, who provides both a multi-tracked trumpet chorus and an artfully smeary solo on "Burn Progression" Joel Ross, who exercises judicious restraint with his vibraphone filigree on "Towers" and Justin Hicks, Kenita Miller-Hicks and Jade Hicks, a family trio that performs as The HawtPlates, deepening a Prince-like glow on "The 5th Dimension."Īt every turn, Ndegeocello makes it clear that the urge to turn inward can coexist with the impetus to explore - an idea that coalesces most clearly on "Virgo," an Afrofuturist anthem with eyes trained on the heavens, and sounds from Younger on harp and Julius Rodriguez on Farfisa organ. Her process on The Omnichord Real Book involves opening it up to some trusted interlopers, inviting them to alter the atmosphere. Ndegeocello's music reliably imbibes from that inner world, creating a nearly self-contained universe. On "An Invitation," which incorporates its retro drum programming, Ndegeocello makes a confession of sorts: "I fear I've lost my way." Elsewhere on the album, she voices her aspirations or gentle admonitions in more organic settings - with a model society of collaborators like Moran, whose solo piano reverie frames a drifting mantra: "Don't let the outside world / Distract you from your inner world." Hear how she uses its strum plate to add an 8-bit shimmer to the Afrobeat groove of "Omnipuss," and you begin to understand how the instrument serves as a shield - a means of embracing jazz without taking on its baggage.Īt the same time, the Omnichord is just another tool. Along with her virtuoso electric bass playing, which grounds the music with a slithery gravity, she leans at times on the digital-primitive synth-rhythms of an Omnichord, the handheld, amoeba-shaped electronic instrument first made by Suzuki in the 1980s. Even as she makes space for jazz artists like pianist Jason Moran and harpist Brandee Younger, Ndegeocello fashions this music in a language of her own. Still, The Omnichord Real Book is a jazz album only to the extent that you need it to be.
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