Hear Meshell Ndegeocello Reimagine Classics on ‘Synonym’
The covers collection pairs Ndegeocello with Chaka Khan, Cynthia Erivo, Brandi Carlile and other guests.
Meshell Ndegeocello has released Synonym, her third album for Blue Note Records and a collection of reimagined cover songs performed with a wide range of guest artists. The project follows her Blue Note releases The Omnichord Real Book from 2023 and No More Water: The Gospel Of James Baldwin from 2024.
The material on Synonym draws from several decades and genres, including 1960s folk, 1970s soul, country and pop, 1980s R&B and electro-boogie, early-1990s alternative rock and early-2000s hip-hop. Guests include 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. Many of the songs are presented as duets between performers who identify as the same gender or, as Ndegeocello put it, “hover around the same continuum of feeling.”
The album also reunites Ndegeocello with David Gamson, who produced her first two albums, Plantation Lullabies in 1993 and Peace Beyond Passion in 1996. Gamson co-produced Synonym with Ndegeocello and Abe Rounds. The musicians appearing across the record include Rounds and Deantoni Parks on drums, guitarist Chris Bruce, keyboardists Jake Sherman, Jebin Bruni and Larry Goldings, saxophonists Josh Johnson and Levon Henry, flutist Elena Pinderhughes and banjoist Bela Fleck.
Ndegeocello said the album’s title reflects the idea of different expressions carrying shared meaning. “These arrangements are synonyms for their originals – these different sounds still mean the same thing,” she said, describing the project in part as “an expression of queer liberation as a synonym for liberation of all kinds.” She also framed Synonym as part of a broader move toward collaborative records rather than albums centered solely on herself, adding, “I want to do more collective music.” Her two previous Blue Note releases each earned her a Grammy Award, marking the first two Grammys awarded to albums under her own name.
