I had this record sitting in the pile of new music and just opened the package and bam! New Meshell, Souljazz Orchestra, and Larry Graham feat. Prince! Looks like I might have to spend the day listening to these great new releases. But today is all Meshell covering Nina. I heard a teaser of “To Be Young, Gifet and Black” featuring Cody ChesnuTT and could not wait to hear
the rest of the album. The opening track is Nina’s “Please Dont Let Me Be Misunderstood” which Meshell covers gracefully from start to finish. The album maintains an over all soothing and chill pace of acoustic guitars and balance harmonies that do absolute justice to the legacy and sounds of Nina Simone.
“Feeling Good” does a great job of working it’s way into your soul though. Meshell works her haunting layered harmonies into this Nina classic. This is the perfect album to say goodbye to the Summer and welcome Fall. The album features Lizz Wright, Sinead O’Connor, Valerie June, Tracy Wannomae and Toshi Reagon. The full length drops October 8th on Naive.
ANTHONY VALADEZ 