Meshell Ndegeocello

Her 2024 Australian shows will be a career retrospective. Audiences can expect to hear songs from her most recent, debut album on Blue Note Records, The Omnichord Real Book a visionary, expansive, and deeply jazz-influenced album that taps into a broad spectrum of her musical roots, plus a collection of songs from her expansive 30-year, 13 album catalogue.

MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO is an unassuming colossus whose body of work extends far beyond the early hits and virtuosic bass playing with which she is most associated. “If That’s Your Boyfriend (He Wasn’t Last Night),” her taunting and funky breakout single, immediately set her apart as an instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, and producer. Less than a year after the song entered Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop, dance, and pop charts, NDEGEOCELLO was nominated for four Grammys, including Best R&B Album for Plantation Lullabies (1993) and Best Pop Vocal Collaboration for “Wild Night,” her Top Ten hit duet with John Mellencamp. Ndegeocello has remained impossible to typecast ever since. A preternatural synthesist, she has mixed and moved across jazz, blues, soul, funk, and reggae, as well as folk and rock. As a leader, she has alternated just as freely between small combos and large ensembles, and as a session musician and featured artist has written and recorded across an even wider spectrum of styles. In addition to her lithe and melodic primary instrument the bass guitar, and vocals encompassing authoritative raps, pensive spoken word, and ethereal choruses, NDEGEOCELLO has played keyboards, drums, and guitar, among other instruments. Nominated for 11 Grammys throughout her career, the pairing of NDEGEOCELLO with H.E.R. for “Better Than I Imagined,” on Robert Glasper’s Black Radio III was the 2021 Grammy winner for Best R&B Song.