Meshell Ndegeocello: No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin review – an inspiring homage

American polymath Meshell Ndegeocello won a Grammy for her 2023 LP The Omnichord Real Book , and this multi-voiced, jazz-adjacent theatrical opus ramps up the veteran bassist and singer’s ambitions further. Marking the centenary of the writer James Baldwin ’s birth, and with its roots in a Baldwin-themed 2016 performance , this 17-track outing reconsiders his work in the light of the 2020 #BlackLivesMatter uprisings and their aftermath.

Part church service – there is also a Gospel according to poet Audre Lorde – and part exploration of the strife and succour built into Black identity, No More Water is no straightforward listen, but one that jolts and inspires in equal measure. Of particular note is Jamaican-born poet Staceyann Chin , whose voice and incendiary words ignite tracks such as Raise the Roof and Tsunami Rising.

Elsewhere, singer Justin Hicks’s more mellifluous tones soar and mourn, often in tandem with Ndegeocello’s. The funk is brought by Ndegeocello’s bass, never more physically than on Pride II, one of many reckonings here with white violence on Black bodies. She and Chin are queer women taking intersectional inspiration from queer Black intellectual forebears (Baldwin, Lorde) who focused on humanity as a whole, and tracks such as Love and Hatred have universal teachings.