The great African-American writer James Baldwin was born on August 2, 2024. To mark this commemoration, bassist and composer Meshell Ndegeocello has created a concept album dedicated to the memory of the writer, who, in addition to being Black, bore the “flaw” of being homosexual in the 50s and 60s.
In the United States of that era, that meant starting life with two strikes against you. No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin is a complex album, which “contains multitudes”, as Bob Dylan would say. Both musically and textually. Obviously, the lyrics are so important that, if you don’t understand English, you’ll miss a lot.
Musically, this album is totally “cross-genre”. At times, it sounds like Talking Heads, Art Ensemble of Chicago, church folk or gospel funk. But it’s all Meshell Ndegeocello and her formidable group of musicians who fuse it all together with exceptional intelligence and intuition.
We hear a lot of James Baldwin’s texts, but not only. Activist poets Staceyann Chin and Hilton Abs bring a contemporary rereading of the work of Baldwin, who died in 1987. In the middle of the album, we are surprised by the declamation of a text in French; then, we realize that James Baldwin spent a large part of his life in exile in France. Thanks to the composer for bringing it up.
While there are many poems, the pieces sung mainly by Kenita Miller-Hicks and Justin Hicks are particularly touching, bringing a little sweetness to a fairly intense creation.
No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin requires several listens to be fully understood and digested. It’s an album that explores the suffering, pain and resistance of Afro-descendants from different angles. It’s a demanding album, but an exceptional one.
