Prom 45: Mississippi Goddam: A Homage to Nina Simone - 21.08.19

[Serial_Apologist]

I thought, too late: I forgot to mention this Prom on my weekly "column" forthcoming jazz to be broadcast. Now I'm wondering. Cloughie is right - Cassandra Wilson probably comes closest in spirit and tone of voice to Simone. Maybe she should have been called over to do last night's concert? Or "our own", Christine Tobin, the Irish-born singer, (), now resident Stateside, sadly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TclfPREm64I

[edashtav]

I heard a small bit of the programme and was disappointed with the singing. Cloughie has said it all - any CD will do to bear out his praise. Nina Simone could express every emotion from tenderness to rage, and it is wonderful to hear her so doing, and to empathise. I always return to one song - not necessarily her best - because it shows her in action with other like musicians in a standard number - For All We Know. Piano guitar and bass become a quartet, and this song a chorale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6proYaAfwtM

I regret that the sound is poor, but there is a version on the Blues CD.

It may be ersatz JSB but it's done with style and feeling. Nina's control of soft singing is astonishing and exemplary.

Many thanks, Padraig!

[gurnemanz]

I love Nina Simone and know about 40 of her tracks really well. I like female jazz singers in general and have a very large collection on CD. In fact this is by far the jazz I play most and love as much as the female lieder artists by whom I have many many more tracks. I love listening to what singers have to offer and song recitals are my favourite concerts. I would not often choose to switch them off and tune to old ITV3 Agatha Christie repeats in preference. I did not like everything about this concert and preferred the vocalising to the background arrangements but stuck with it and mostly enjoyed it. Clearly, not everyone on here feels the same way - fair enough - but in attempting to be scathing in condemnation ("crossover travesty" ) one could at least do so in accurate terms. I tend to intensely dislike crossover, which I understand to be an artist moving across into a style, genre or repertoire with which they are not customarily associated, eg classical singers like Jonas Kaufmann or Bryn Terfel doing show tune albums at the behest of their recording company. One is obviously entitled not to like this Prom but the artists in this Prom were just doing what they do and not moving across.

I see Ivan Hewitt gave five stars in the Telegraph.

[Ein Heldenleben]

A Nina Simone tribute concert is a bit like a Maria Callas tribute concert . Without the presence , the talent and the voice ...what’s left ?
Exhibit one Dido’s Lament as sung last night...

[LezLee]

A Nina Simone tribute concert is a bit like a Maria Callas tribute concert . Without the presence , the talent and the voice ...what’s left ?
Exhibit one Dido’s Lament as sung last night...

Exactly. I don't understand what people get out of 'tribute' concerts.

[cloughie]

I love Nina Simone and know about 40 of her tracks really well. I like female jazz singers in general and have a very large collection on CD. In fact this is by far the jazz I play most and love as much as the female lieder artists by whom I have many many more tracks. I love listening to what singers have to offer and song recitals are my favourite concerts. I would not often choose to switch them off and tune to old ITV3 Agatha Christie repeats in preference. I did not like everything about this concert and preferred the vocalising to the background arrangements but stuck with it and mostly enjoyed it. Clearly, not everyone on here feels the same way - fair enough - but in attempting to be scathing in condemnation ("crossover travesty" ) one could at least do so in accurate terms. I tend to intensely dislike crossover, which I understand to be an artist moving across into a style, genre or repertoire with which they are not customarily associated, eg classical singers like Jonas Kaufmann or Bryn Terfel doing show tune albums at the behest of their recording company. One is obviously entitled not to like this Prom but the artists in this Prom were just doing what they do and not moving across.

I see Ivan Hewitt gave five stars in the Telegraph.

It was 'crossover' in that non-classical genre moving into the Proms arena. It was a travesty in its poor delivery. I, too, have listened to many female jazz and 'serious easy' singers over the years and so like you know what to make my comparisons.

[Master Jacques]

Exactly. I don't understand what people get out of 'tribute' concerts.

They certainly have no place whatsoever in BBC subsidised Proms. Populist commercial ventures ought to be paid for by commercial managements, in my opinion.

[LMcD]

Thanks for all your comments - it looks as though it was a good concert to miss, but you have encouraged me to give my CD another listen¬

[MickyD]

Nina Simone's version of 'My Way' is, for me, unsurpassed. Amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45BqY0cpapQ&list=FLBc5HbFSu_TDvzxC8-xga4Q&index=132&t=0s

[burning dog]

They certainly have no place whatsoever in BBC subsidised Proms. Populist commercial ventures ought to be paid for by commercial managements, in my opinion.

There isn't a Nina Simone "tribute band" is there? I didn't listen to the concert. Wouldn't have thought it would be much of a commercial venture, certainly not like the Bootleg Beatles.

[MrGongGong]

They certainly have no place whatsoever in BBC subsidised Proms. Populist commercial ventures ought to be paid for by commercial managements, in my opinion.

Spot on
Time to ditch the 'tribute' bands that have infested the Proms
though i'm not sure that my friends in the OAE would agree

[cloughie]

There isn't a Nina Simone "tribute band" is there? I didn't listen to the concert. Wouldn't have thought it would be much of a commercial venture, certainly not like the Bootleg Beatles.

https://www.jazzrep.co.uk/nina-simone---liz-fletcher

[cloughie]

Spot on
Time to ditch the 'tribute' bands that have infested the Proms
though i'm not sure that my friends in the OAE would agree

Or maybe any other orchestra, string quartet, wind ensemble, every classical ensemble that follows the original score. Here’s the can opener, watch out for the worms!

[LMcD]

https://www.jazzrep.co.uk/nina-simone---liz-fletcher

Upcoming 'attractions' at our local theatre (which we would support if it ever put on anything of interest) include:
Pink Floyd Experience
Guns Or Roses
Left Zep
Roy Orbison & Traveling Wilburys Exp.
Ultimate Buble
The Rod Stewart Story
Arrival: The Hits of Abba
Marshall King and His Band - 'Elvis'
The Jive Aces
Bon Jovi Exp.
Soultown USA
Voice of Orbison
One Moment in Time (Whitney Tribute)
Chicago Blue Bros
Tina Turner Exp.
Johnny Cash Exp.

(To be fair: 27th September - Russian National Ballet: Swan Lake, and I mustn't forget 29th January - 'Sinderella (18+)

[MrGongGong]

Upcoming 'attractions' at our local theatre (which we would support if it ever put on anything of interest) include:
Pink Floyd Experience
Guns Or Roses
Left Zep
Roy Orbison & Traveling Wilburys Exp.
Ultimate Buble
The Rod Stewart Story
Arrival: The Hits of Abba
Marshall King and His Band - 'Elvis'
The Jive Aces
Bon Jovi Exp.
Soultown USA
Voice of Orbison
One Moment in Time (Whitney Tribute)
Chicago Blue Bros
Tina Turner Exp.
Johnny Cash Exp.

(To be fair: 27th September - Russian National Ballet: Swan Lake, and I mustn't forget 29th January - 'Sinderella (18+)

I think it was Laurie Taylor (?) who said that anything that is called "an experience" with the exception of the Jimi Hendrix Experinece is, by definition, cr*p.