-By Doc Lawrence-
I came close to meeting Nina Simone who performed in Atlanta
for the Atlanta Jazz festival, at Morehouse College and at Chastain three years
before her death. That emptiness was finally filled while I, along with a
packed house, was immersed in the timely and powerful musical, Simply Simone
at Atlanta’s Theatrical Outfit. With 32 songs performed by four very gifted
women portraying Nina Simone from her childhood in Tryon, North Carolina to her
performances in Carnegie Hall, foreign countries, jazz clubs and the Newport
Jazz Festival, we were treated to a tour de force of much of America’s greatest
music.
A complex and passionate Nina told the world that she was
not a diva, but The Diva. There are four talented actresses portraying Ms.
Simone at different stages of her life: Marliss Amiea, Tina Fears, Chani
Maisonet and Chelsea Reynolds. The musical review kicks off with the double
entrendre-loaded I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl followed by My Baby
Just Cares for Me, and then Simone’s best-known song and her first
hit recording, the heart-wrenching I Loves You Porgy from Porgy
and Bess. And the show was just beginning.
 |
| Chani Maisonet as Nina |
Nina Simone’s skills as a pianist helped propel her journey
from a North Carolina high school to the Julliard School of Music in New York
City and later to an audition for the prestigious Curtis Institute where she
was rejected for displaying too much emotion, stinging words of prejudice that
inflicted emotional injury to the 17 year-old prodigy. Always defiant, Ms.
Simone’s Young, Gifted and Black, another hit recording addresses
self-confidence despite rejection and ensuing pain, and stirringly introduces a
showcase of her determined plunge into music, singing and playing the blues,
jazz, gospel and her signature protest songs.
The 1963 bombing of a black church that killed four girls in
Birmingham, Alabama, an event that placed Ms. Simone’s voice and star power
behind the civil rights movement is described in agonizing detail. The
bone-chilling and very provocative Mississippi Goddam, Simone’s response
to Birmingham and the murder of Medgar Evers that same year, explodes just
before intermission, allowing time to catch a breath and recover some needed
equilibrium.
Love me or Leave Me wasn’t composed for Ms. Simone,
but when she performed it at the Newport Jazz Festive with a never-to-be
equaled piano solo incorporating Mozart and Bach-style counterpoint, the
recording stands today as a testament of her capacity to love deeply and never
forgive an injury. There is pain on the stage but there triumphant moments of
joy as well. Nina Simone was a versatile, virtuoso musician, an American
original and a ferociously independent woman.
Beyond the music (the band is flawless), Simply Simone
makes the case for the arts in Atlanta, particularly outstanding companies like
Theatrical Outfit. On this day, the audience through the auspices of song and
dance visited a little girl and a magnificent woman named Nina who expanded the
reach of jazz and much of popular music, never hesitating to use her voice as a
vehicle for change.
The show leaves the audience dancing and clapping. Nina
could express hurt, but she also knew how to stir the spirit.
Artwork by BreeAnne Clowdus
Photography by Christopher Bartelski
No comments:
Post a Comment