MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO: Ventriloquism (Naive Believe)

SHE has played bass for the Stones and Madonna, but American singer Ndegeocello looks to the R&B of her formative years — the mid-Eighties — on an inventive covers album. Often overlooked by soul historians, this was a golden era. Prince was in his prime, and is brilliantly covered here, while Ndegeocello finishes with a flourish on Tina Turner’s Private Dancer and Sade’s Smooth Operator.