Meshell Ndegeocello is back with her most ambitious project to date, Synonym, her third release with Blue Note Records. Synonym follows 2024’s No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin and 2023’s The Omnichord Real Book which earned Ndegeocello her first two GRAMMY awards for Best Alternative Jazz Album for both albums.
Ndegeocello reunited with producer and keyboardist David Gamson who produced her first two albums, Plantation Lullabies (1993) and Peace Beyond Passion (1996). The album explores expressions of desire, care, heartbreak, friendship, disappointment, and love in all forms, featuring carefully curated covers of songs ranging from 1960s folk and 70s soul, country, and pop to 80s R&B and electro-boogie, early-90s alternative rock, and early-2000s hip-hop. “This project is about classic songs that are known and loved,” Ndegeocello says. “The songs have diverse tones, representing various genres and intentional grooves. But the album is also about joy, selfhood, individual representation, and universal experience.”
Joining Ndegeocello is a star-studded lineup of guest artists from various genres including Cynthia Erivo, Cat Power, Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, Bill Callahan, Chris Thile, Nick Hakim, Robert Glasper, Madison Cunningham, Laura Lee (of Khruangbin), Lizz Wright, Emily King, Lianne La Havas, Moses Sumney, Destin Conrad, ANOHNI, WILLOW, Evann McIntosh, and Ink.
Synonym was preceded by three lead singles, “I Knew You Were Waiting for Me” featuring Cynthia Erivo, “Don’t You Want Me” with Cat Power and “With God On Our Side” featuring Bill Callahan and Chris Thile.
