“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.”

A bassist, multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, producer and conceptualist, Ndegeocello has never shown much interest in musical boundaries. On Synonym, she explores desire, care, heartbreak, friendship, disappointment and love in all their forms. The source material stretches 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.

One of the album’s defining ideas is that its songs are performed as duets by artists who identify as the same gender—or, as Ndegeocello puts it, “hover around the same continuum of feeling.”

“Hopefully, that’s what stands out—that everyone is well matched musically and complement each other,” she says. “That said: I’m not defining anything, because the absence of definition is where I feel most free.”

The first single is an arresting reinvention of “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me),” the 1987 Aretha Franklin and George Michael duet. This time, Ndegeocello shares the song with Cynthia Erivo.

Synonym arrives October 2, 2026, on Blue Note Records.

1. I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) with Cynthia Erivo
2. Don’t You Want Me with Cat Power
3. Don’t Stop The Music with Nick Hakim, Robert Glasper
4. Islands In The Stream with Chaka Khan
5. It Ain’t Me Babe with Madison Cunningham
6. Always on Time with Laura Lee
7. Be Real Black For Me with Emily King, Lizz Wright
8. Don’t Look Any Further with Lianne La Havas
9. The Closer I Get To You with Destin Conrad, Moses Sumney
10. Golden Ring with Brandi Carlile
11. I Got You Babe with ANOHNI
12. Here We Come (Here He Comes) with Evann McIntosh
13. Guilty with Ink
14. Hunger Strike with WILLOW
15. With God On Our Side with Bill Callahan, Chris Thile

The post Meshell Ndegeocello Announces New Album Synonym appeared first on ContemporaryJazz.com.

Madlib’s interest in jazz became apparent when he created Yesterdays New Quintet, a modern jazz “band” that was comprised of vibraphonist/psychiatrist Ahmad Miller, guitarist Malik Flavors, bassist/physicist Monk Hughes, pianist Joe McDuphrey, and drummer Otis Jackson Jr. All of those were actually Madlib, who learned to play live instruments instead of sampling others. YNQ’s Angles Without Edges CD featured Madlib’s originals in addition to covers of classics by Roy Ayers and Ramsey Lewis.

Digging into the Blue Note catalog was obviously a joy for Madlib, and it shows on Shades of Blue. Madlib adopts new identities (organist Morgan Adams III and DJ Lord Such) and performs almost of the new, live instrumentation himself. It’s not just a remix CD – Madlib breaks apart some of the classics by Donald Byrd, Horace Silver, and Wayne Shorter and reconstitutes them into a different piece of work. I’ve never heard Shorter’s “Footprints” like this. Sometimes the new configuration deserves a different title, as happens with Ronnie Foster’s “Mystic Brew” which gets added a little something to become “Mystic Bounce.” I love what he did to Reuben Wilson’s “Stormy.” If I could still run my Internet radio station, I’d be playing that in heavy rotation. Madlib pays tribute to the era of Blue Note he loves the most – the 1960s and 70s – with “Funky Blue Note,” a nice flute piece backed by some active drum work.

Shades of Blue is a fun album to listen to (or albums if you get the limited edition double LP). It’s rich in funk and based in jazz. It flows well with the interludes, which are remarks from some of the artists who are represented on the CD or comments about Blue Note’s history. It’s a project that can be enjoyed by everyone, though it’s not meant as a CD to expose today’s youth to jazz or today’s jazz fan to hip-hop. “Just trying to connect with the old heads and the young heads at once,” Madlib says. “But it’s not thought out like that. I do the music I want to hear.” Madlib and I are on the same page.

Review originally published June 19, 2003.

The post Review: Shades of Blue from Madlib appeared first on ContemporaryJazz.com.