Alcohol will be served as Paisley Park launches new live music series

This month, Paisley Park is introducing a music-movie series. Next month, Prince's complex in Chanhassen will launch a live music series, starting with Meshell Ndegeocello on Feb.15.

The series is entitled "Musicology: Real Music by Real Musicians." Ndegeocello's program, "Reimagining Prince," will include some of his songs, music inspired by the Purple One and other material.

The occasional series, which will take place in Paisley's 1,000-person capacity soundstage, nods to Prince's 2004 album "Musicology," the title song of which gives a musical history of sounds that informed his music. And one of his mantras often uttered onstage was "real music by real musicians," a wagging of the finger at performers with pre-recorded music.

In one change from his Paisley policy, alcohol will be served at this concert.

Ndegeocello, a genre-blending bassist-singer, is probably best known for collaborating with John Mellencamp on the 1994 hit "Wild Night" and for her '96 dance remake of Bill Withers' "Who Is He (and What Is He to You)."

She has released 12 albums, including 2018's "Ventriloquism," a collection of covers including Sade's "Smooth Operator," George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" and Prince's "Sometimes It Snows in April." She performed at the Dakota two years ago in support of that project.

Tickets for Ndegeocello, priced at $60 for general admission and $75 for VIP, will go on sale Monday at paisleypark.com. VIP tickets include on-site parking; other ticket holders will be bussed from the SW Transit Station in Chanhassen.

Meanwhile, the new "Paisley Park Cinema: Music on the Big Screen" kicks off at 8 p.m. Saturday with a screening of 1973's "Wattstax," an outdoor concert sometimes dubbed the "black Woodstock" featuring Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Rufus Thomas, Kim Weston, William Bell, Albert King, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and others, to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the 1965 riots in the Watts area of Los Angeles.

The film series also includes the acclaimed Aretha Franklin gospel documentary "Amazing Grace" (2018) on Jan. 18 and "Dave Chappelle's Block Party" (2005) on Jan. 25.

The flurry of activity at Paisley started with a New Year's Eve party featuring former Prince associates including Judith Hill, Andre Cymone and the Funk Soldiers.