Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Meshell Ndegeocello is an African-American singer, bassist and multi-instrumentalist. Born in the late 1960s in Berlin but raised in Washington DC, Meshell Suihailia Bashir Shakur adopted the name Ndegeocello, which means "free like a bird" while still in her teens. She has been hailed in the music press as a redeemer of soul music. Her music incorporates funk, soul, hip-hop, reggae, rock and jazz into an amalgam uniquely her own. She has been nominated for 9 Grammys. Ndegeocello honed her chops on the D.C. Go go circuit in the late 1980s before venturing out as a solo artist. She emerged as a recording artist in 1993 on Maverick/Sire Records with her debut, Plantation Lullabies. This recording presented a remarkable musical maturity as well as a distinctly androgynous persona. Her music has been featured in a number of film soundtracks including How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Batman and Robin as well as on recordings by The Basement Jaxx and The Blind Boys of Alabama, among others. Her biggest hit is a duet with John Mellencamp, a cover version of Van Morrison's "Wild Night", which reached #3. Discography Plantation Lullabies Maverick, 1993 Peace Beyond Passion Maverick, 1996 Bitter Maverick, 1999 Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape Maverick, 2002 Comfort Woman Maverick, 2003 Collaborators The following additional musicians are featured on the recording Peace Beyond Passion: drums: Oliver Gene Lake guitar: Wah Wah Watson, Wendy Melvoin, Alan Cato, David Fiuczynski percussion: Daniel Sadownick, Federico Gonzalez Pena, Luis Conte drum programming: David Gamson horns: Joshua Redman bass clarinet: Bennie Maupin organ: Billy Preston rhodes: Federico Gonzalez Pena string arrangements: Paul Riser production: David Gamson Official web site: http://www.meshell.com/ This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.