Meshell Ndegeocello’s music twists and turns through so many genres – R&B, pop, jazz, hip-hop – that it’s hard to put a finger on just where she wants to take you. Ndegeocello has defied labels throughout her 20+ year career as one of the brightest and most innovative artists. A ten-time Grammy nominee, Ndegeocello is respected in the industry as a virtuoso on the electric bass guitar and as a composer and producer. Her songs have a rubbery flow rooted in ‘70s funky soul and ‘90s hip-hop culture.

Some albums are testimony, some confessions, and some are escapes. “Ventriloquism”, the last album from Meshell Ndegeocello, is a place, like its process, to take refuge from one storm too many.

Musically, “Ventriloquism” has the hallmarks of all of Ndegeocello’s work, lush and investigative, subversive and sublime. As always, she pays tribute to her diverse influences and in these eleven covers, we hear them layered over one another. Ndegeocello filters “Tender Love” through a folky, Californian filter and brings Vaudevillian accents to “Sensitivity”. She recreates Smooth Operator in five and turns “Private Dancer” into a sultry waltz. The reimagining affords not just a new musical experience but also a comment on the narrow expectations of sounds and structures for black artists and black music.

Meshell will engage conference attendees in a moderated panel discussion and also give a featured performance at the 2022 MUSE Conference.