The continuous relevance of Nina Simone

Posthumously, Nina Simone injects herself into the lifeblood of Black America whenever we need her music.

-- William C. Anderson

Read more at:
Nina Simone's Insistent Blackness
by William C. Anderson, Pitchfork, July 27, 2105

Happy Winter Solstice: Here comes the sun!

A book details the story of Black women in performing arts and activism

Harnessing Celebrity to Civil Rights Cause
‘How It Feels to Be Free’ Salutes Black Female Entertainers
by Farah Jasmine Griffin, The New York Times, January 15, 2014

Meshell NdegeOcello's new tribute to Nina Simone

Me'shell NdegeOcello - Pour une âme souveraine - A Dedication to Nina Simone
by L. Michael Gipson, Soultracks.com, November 18, 2012

Skin in the game: Nina, Nora, Miriam

Stir Builds Over Actress to Portray Nina Simone
by Tanzina Vega, The New York Times, September 12, 2012

Should Zoe Saldana play Nina Simone? No. And that's neither a knock on the Dominican-Puerto Rican Saldana for not being African-American nor an assessment of her acting abilities. Simone's dark, dark skin and broad features--clearly not acceptable to Hollywood's image-makers and marketers even today--were essential to her experience in the world as a Black woman and to her politics. Casting a light-skinned actress with conventionally pretty features to portray Nina Simone would be as absurd as trying to turn a gay business associate into a heterosexual lover. Oh, wait....

Dance artist Nora Chipaumire, as I'm sure you've been hearing and reading about everywhere, has had another giant of Black music and activism much on her mind--the late Miriam Makeba. But don't expect Pata Pata, or anything remotely like it, from Miriam, Chipaumire's raw and provocative "solo for two people," set to music composed by Omar Sosa.

Performed at BAM's new 250-seat Fishman Space with Okwui Okpokwasili, this demanding, hour-long ritual digs beneath the surface of Black Woman as Icon (throwing in, less obviously, the Virgin Mary) to the archetypal id of imagination or, perhaps, reality. The intimate performance area remains quite dark almost throughout this experience, greatly magnifying the effect of sound (dripping water; heavy footfalls; a single voice ringing out or a welter of voices overlapping; orgasmic breaths, shrieks and moans) and, whenever it comes, the selective touch of light.

I was stunned to realize that Okpokwasili actually towers over Chipaumire--a majestic performer who looms larger in one's imagination than, perhaps, in reality. By the time Miriam concludes, in a blaze of light, you will have visited the place of the ancestral and archetypical intensities--desire, fear, shame, jealousy, anger. In other words, it is a hair-raising journey through the usually hidden end of the spectrum.

At the end, I stood to leave, struggling to adjust my eyes in a sudden shock of light. Meanwhile, two white women seated to my left immediately took up their pre-show chat precisely where they had left off, as if nothing at all had occurred in the interval. Unbelievable.

Directed by Eric Ting with lighting by Olivier Clausse, scenic design by Olivier Clausse/Hecho Mano, sound by Lucas Indelicato and costumes by Naoko Nagata

Nora Chipaumire's Miriam continues at BAM Fisher (Fishman Space) through Saturday with performances at 7:30pm. Tonight's show will be followed by an artist's talk moderated by Simon Dove.

BAM Fisher (Fishman Space)
Brooklyn Academy of Music
321 Ashland Place, Brooklyn
(around the corner from BAM's Peter Jay Sharp Building: map/directions)

Meshell Ndegeocello. Nina Simone. 'nuff said.

Women's Jazz Festival presents 

Meshell Ndegeocello: 

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, The Works of Nina Simone

Monday, March 5, 7pm

Celebrate Women's History Month!

Meshell Ndegeocello makes her debut at the Schomburg Center's Women's Jazz Festival. A bass player above all else, Meshell brings her signature warm, fat, and melodic groove to everything she does. Canonized, marginalized or just scrutinized, she has given up trying to explain herself. After 20+ years in an industry that has called her everything from avant garde to a dying breed, what unquestionably remains is the fearsome bassist, prolific songwriter and the creativity and curiosity of an authentic musical force. With that, she has earned critical acclaim, the unfailing respect of fellow players, songwriters and composers, and the dedication of her diverse, unclassifiable fans.

Click here for information and ticketing.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
(Langston Hughes Auditorium)
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, Manhattan (map/directions)

Souls intact

To even attempt to invoke the complex genius of Nina Simone might require an entire stage filled with badass women, and that's exactly how things went down last night at Aaron Davis Hall. Presented by Harlem Stage, the renowned Black Rock Coalition Orchestra gave the final performance of its Nina Simone Tribute, featuring numerous female singers and a versatile musical ensemble covering nearly two dozen songs written or interpreted by the extraordinary musical diva and activist who left us in 2003.

Standouts included Angela Johnson's mellifluous piano work and vocal phrasing, where we could grasp every nuance of thought and feeling in Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair and Brown Baby; Joi's frisky I'm Gonna Leave You with its driving rhythm that sounds exactly like a strong woman getting the hell on outta there; anything that Imani Uzuri turned her fierce voice to, absolutely anything, from the romping Backlash Blues to the softly pitying Fodder to the raging anger of Peaches in Four Women; the bravado of Toli Nameless's triple-threat celebration of See-Line Woman in song, dance and trumpet-playing.

Tamar-kali sizzled--what confidence and clout!--in the torch song Tell Me More, a five-alarm I Put A Spell On You, and a slow-drag Feelin' Good. Her voice is dark smoke crossed with flutely sinuosity. Mazz Swift, besides her duties in the lovely string quartet, offered up Lilac Wine with mesmerizing sensitivity. LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs's Pirate Jenny glowed with toxic charm.

There was much, much more, and I wish there could be much, much more. Harlem Stage, bring each and every one of them back without delay!

Other great vocalists from this show are also online:

Lisala
Somi
Maya Azucena

Nina Simone tribute

NINA SIMONE TRIBUTE/ BLACK ROCK COALITION ORCHESTRA
presented by Harlem Stage at Aaron Davis Hall

Friday, March 26, 7:30pm

7:30 pm Pre-show DJ mixer
8:30 pm Performance
10:00 pm After party

An 18-member all-female ensemble, under the direction of composer Tamar-Kali:

Angela Johnson http://www.angelajohnson.com/fr_index.cfm
Imani Uzuri http://www.imaniuzuri.com/
Joi http://www.myspace.com/joi
Lisala Beatty http://www.myspace.com/lisalab
Toli Nameless http://www.tolinameless.com/
Portia Rolle
Tara Thierry http://www.myspace.com/tarathierry
Tarrah Reynolds http://www.myspace.com/misstarrah
LaFrae Sci http://www.lafrae.com/Frae%20Frae.html
Jenny Hill http://www.jennyhilljazz.com/
Pam Fleming http://www.fearlessdreamer.com/
Lauren Sevian http://www.laurensevian.com/
Mazz Swift-Camlet http://www.myspace.com/mazzmuzik
Amali Premawardhana http://www.myspace.com/amaliprema
Surai Balbeisi http://www.myspace.com/nesrinebalbeisi
Narjess Saad-Ellaoui
Dawn Drake http://www.dawndrake.com/

For complete details, click here. For tickets, click here.