via The Wall Street Journal
Meshell Ndegeocello is a modern master of electric bass. Her playing never calls undue attention to itself, yet her songs would fall apart without it. Bouncing between just two notes, she exudes authority while propelling “Travel,” which opens her new release “No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin” (Blue Note, out Aug. 2). Her fleet-fingered, deep-toned groove arrives with sudden and transforming force halfway into the next track, “On the Mountain.” Later, her descending figure on “What Did I Do?” throbs with disarming fullness as it guides both the song’s form and its forlorn feeling.