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Meshell Ndegeocello - "The Spirit Music Jamia: Dance of the Infidel"
by William Ashanti Hobbs
author and co-owner of Meroen Press
August 2005
This Music Review is sponsored by:
1102 S. Adams St., ste.#5 - Tallahassee, FL 32301
850.222.6940 - www.flavamusic.net
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This Music Review is
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In a time where most music is created solely to round
out an album or specifically with the perspective of
how many spins it may garner per radio station, the
musical journey of Meshell Ndegeocello’s
boundary-defying "Dance of the Infidel" will challenge
many listeners not to indulge in
over-intellectualizing each and every nuance therein.
Although stripped down mostly to lush, meditative
instrumentals, the experimental form brings to mind
Prince’s funky jazz experimental band Madhouse and
Miles Davis’ "Bitches Brew" fusion. Under the auspices
of Ndegeocello, the band Spirit Music Jamia was formed
to float freely in the cross currents of Afrobeat,
electronic dance music, funk and jazz. The result is
one of the best new albums to smoke out, kick back, or
make love to (the kind where you don’t even sweat)
this year, that is, if you can get over the need for
the conformity that goads you to ask yourself "what is
this?"
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"Mu-min" feels like walking in from the cold into your
favorite bookstore with an afternoon to kill.
"Al-Falaq 113" is even more like Prince-inspired jazz
(most notably his N.E.W.S. project), soothing, yet
temperamental enough to sharpen the senses. "Aquarium"
brings Ndegeocello in on bass as the atmospheric
effects on Sabina’s (one of Verve's Brazilian Girls)
bemoaning over a confined existence gives one the
sense of weightlessness.
"Papillon" reclines on an unhurried groove as
saxophonist Kenny Garrett solos like a barefoot child
at play in a field of wheat. Fellow saxophonist Oran
Coltrane gets his turn to explore the more familiar,
saucy soul-inspired Ndegeocello landscape of the title
track. Cassandra Wilson’s settles herself in the
middle of the acoustic haunts of "The Chosen" like a
Cheshire cat on a rug in front of a crackling
fireplace. Of all the other cuts, "Luqman" promises to
bring the most zeal but only simmers the pot. Lalah
Hathaway brings an undisputed but pleasurable
cool-down with the velvety blues of "When Did You
Leave Heaven?" Writer Joseph Addison once stated that
"Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure
in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an
agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives
it an idea of which it was not before possessed."
Though projects that maintain the same tempo and vibe
throughout being satisfying is uncommon, "Dance of the
Infidel’s" earnest attempt to transcend makes it more
a worthwhile journey than a group of artists stuck in
a rut.
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