American singer-songwriter and funk bassist Meshell Ndegeocello has never been easy to categorize. Her inspiration comes from jazz, soul, hip-hop, punk, new wave and rock. Her lyrics are often about injustice and subjects like homophobia, racism and genderism. Time and again, she attracts the attention of the media and the public at large. Her new release, Ventriloquism, is her first covers album. The choice was not made for convenience and she turns virtually every song inside out. She interprets numbers by, among others, Prince, Sade, Tina Turner, George Clinton, and Nina Simone, and only stays true to the originals on rare occasions. More often, Ndegeocello completely reinterprets the songs in a special way and they undergo a sometimes radical transformation. The result: pop, R&B and country influences not heard earlier in her music. Throughout her career, she has worked with greats ranging from Madonna and The Rolling Stones to Chaka Khan and John Medeski.
