Me’Shell Ndegeocello is a bassist extraordinaire, a rapper, a singer/songwriter, and a six-time Grammy nominee. She has collaborated with artists like Prince, John Cougar Mellencamp, The Rolling Stones, and Alanis Morrisette, and appeared in the hit documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown. So you’d think that at this point, Ndegeocello would be above having to deal with, say, travel inconveniences. Not so. In fact, I had a hard time getting her to narrow things down to only one travel gong show.
“There was the one time the road manager booked two hotel rooms over 20 dates and we all had to live on the bus,” she begins. “Or when we played in Spain and I brought my adolescent son and when we showed up for soundcheck we found ourselves on a nude beach. Or when the bass player had to open his bass case at customs and there was weed all over his bass....”
The list went on. Eventually I got Ndegeocello to elaborate on her favourite road story....
“I guess you could tell the story about when my bass player lost his passport the night before a European tour. We looked everywhere and called everybody and emptied all his shit out 10 times. When we showed up at the airport the next day, he came with all his stuff and had burst a blood vessel in his eye from the stress. He thought I would kill him.”
Oh, I’ve met many a disorganized musician, and I can definitely picture the scenario. Ndegeocello’s cool stare would be the last thing a frazzled bass player would want to encounter, especially considering her own bass-playing virtuosity. Add to that the knee-knocking fear of a no-nonsense boss like Ndegecello, and I’m kind of surprised the story wasn’t about the time her band slaughtered their bassist.
Ndegeocello continues the tale. “We left him there to get a passport in 24 hours and meet us on the road, but we still had to play for 1,500 people in Paris the next night without him. I have a hard time playing and singing, so everyone who could learned the bass parts. I played bass, both guitarists played bass, the keyboard player played bass lines. It was a great show, actually, and a feel-good band moment.”
Ndegecello savors the accomplishment for a few seconds, then adds: “I was still happy as hell when [the bassist’s] ass showed up in Dublin, though. We drank a lot of Guinness to celebrate the reunion.” There is hardly a finer moment than when a band reunites. But the moment quickly turns serious again.
“I better tell him to check the date on that thing, come to think of it,” she thinks aloud.
Hopefully the expiry date on her bassist’s passport is alright, as Ndegeocello—full band in tow— is scheduled to play The Starlite Room on July 27.
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