Weekly Music Roundup: Meshell Ndegeocello, Ed Sheeran, Avishai Cohen & Abe Rodriguez
Week of May 8: This week, Ed Sheeran’s sonic surprise, cosmic R&B from Meshell Ndegeocello, and a new Afro-Latin jazz sound from Avishai Cohen and Abe Rodriguez. Plus new songs by Danielle Ponder and Peter Gabriel.
It Was A Big Week For Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran started last week by making headlines when he emerged victorious from a copyright lawsuit that, because he is Ed Sheeran, was front page news. And he ended it by releasing his latest album, called “-“ (pronounced “Subtract”). This of course follows in the footsteps of his world-dominating earlier albums (“+.” “x,” “÷,” and “=”), at least as far as the title goes. But in sound, it’s quite different: quieter, less dance-oriented, moody and uncertain. Like Taylor Swift’s pandemic albums, Folklore and Evermore, Sheeran’s new release was produced by Aaron Dessner of the indie rock band The National, who applies a light touch of distant guitar feedback or chamber music strings to Sheeran’s acoustic guitar-based songs. This track, “Spark,” is an exception in that it’s built around a piano, and it sports a relatively big production, with a full drum kit and subtle but gleaming wisps of synthesizer. But its theme of trying to heal an ailing relationship is all of a piece with the rest of the album. It’ll be interesting to see if next week is a big one for Sheeran as well: this is not the type of record his zillions of fans would be expecting.
Meshell Ndegeocello Gets Cosmic in “The 5th Dimension”
Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Meshell Ndegeocello has just released a single called “The 5th Dimension,” which is from her next record called The Omnichord Real Book, her first on the storied Blue Note label. Jazz has always been a part of Ndegeocello’s musical palette, and she’ll be playing a show as part of the Blue Note Jazz Festival in June, but her expansive musical world also includes a kind of psychedelic soul or R&B that is very much in evidence here. Alternately floating or skittering sounds come together for an almost spiritual evocation of universal love; “The 5th Dimension” also features the vocal trio HawtPlates. It’s the type of shapeshifting song that could easily become incoherent, but in Nedegeocello’s hands it feels like more than the sum of its parts.
Other guests on the album, due on June 16, include pianist Jason Moran, guitarist Jeff Parker, harpist Brandee Younger, and many more. Meshell Ndegeocello plays at Sony Hall on June 21.
Afro-Caribbean Fusion From Avishai Cohen and Abe Rodriguez
Jazz bassist Avishai Cohen has teamed up the Latin jazz singer/percussionist Abraham “Abe” Rodriguez Jr for a record called Iroko. It’s a modern-day extension of New York’s long history of Latin jazz, but instead of going for the big band sound of Dizzy Gillespie, Chano Pozo, and the like, Cohen and Rodriguez have made an album of intimate but pulsating music that centers the voice-and-drum combo that is at the heart of so much Afro-Latin music. “Tintorera,” or “Shark,” begins with a gently funky bassline, and Rodriguez enters with his vocals pitched somewhat higher than you might’ve expected. Layers of voice and conga keep the whole thing percolating.
Moody New Soul Music From Danielle Ponder
“Roll The Credits” is the name of Danielle Ponder’s new single, and it says a lot about the quality of her singing that her voice remains the focus of your attention, even as your ear is continually drawn to the arrangement. The production, by Gianluca Buccellati (who’s worked with Lana Del Rey and Arlo Parks), has an unexpected trip-hop vibe, with a dreamlike keyboard and cycling bass line. There are also wordless vocals and what sound like swooping sine wave tones that add to the uncanny effect. But Ponder is a powerful soul singer, and she says the song is “about spirituality in all of its forms,” and the combination of vocals and production creates something earthy, yet also unearthly.
Peter Gabriel’s “Four Kinds Of Horses” Is Not About Horses
Friday was another full moon, so once again Peter Gabriel released a new track from his quixotic, forthcoming album i/o, a collection of songs that are being released one at a time this year, whenever there’s a full moon. The new song is called “Four Kinds of Horses,” and the fact that Friday was also the eve of the Kentucky Derby (and, more importantly for a British artist, the 2000 Guineas, the first leg of Britain’s horse racing Triple Crown) was purely a coincidence: the title refers to a Buddhist story about different ways of approaching a spiritual practice, and the song is specifically about those people for whom spirituality metastasizes into extremism and religious violence. Gabriel’s voice, perhaps slightly more weathered after 50+ years in the business, remains a distinctive and emotional instrument; Brian Eno adds some of his trademark synthesizers; and the song ends with a dramatic string arrangement by John Metcalfe, who worked on Gabriel’s New Blood and Scratch My Back albums.