Southbank Centre’s Nina Simone tribute is a missed opportunity

The song in question was “Feelings”, which Simone performed that night at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland as a powerhouse reinvention of Morris Albert’s original, a hit single internationally. Simone could barely hide her disdain for the lyrics, suggesting that Albert should be ashamed to write a song so unbelievably cloying, before dismantling it like a broken toy and building it anew.

“She had an unbelievable life, and it all seemed there in that song: the pain, the loss, and regret, all of it,” said Bailey Rae to The Guardian back in 2009. “That was like a save-your-life performance."

In Montreux, the summer of ‘76 was a damp one, punctuated by thunderstorms and warm, light rain. The grey and misty waters of Lac Léman must have felt a world away from Simone’s beachfront home on the wild Atlantic coastline ofLiberia, where she’d lived since her sudden departure from America in 1974. Her contract with RCA had ended and money troubles loomed, so her show at the Montreux Casino that night was something of a comeback – a business decision buoyed by memories of her triumphant debut there in 1968. But it was also a would-be farewell.

“I have decided I will do no more jazz festivals,” we see her solemnly declare in grainy concert footage projected on a screen above the stage of the Royal Festival Hall. “After which I shall graduate to a higher class, I hope, and I hope you will come with me.”

What followed in ’76 was an hour-long set as impenetrable as it was iconic. Performing for an audience that didn’t quite know what to make of her unsteady mood, Simone was fighting for her life, tempestuous and raw as a stinging, fresh wound. It’s uncomfortable listening, and even more uncomfortable viewing, with much of the footage shot in startling close-up fashion. It’s no wonder that Bailey Rae, in her own raw state, found Simone’s unvarnished vulnerability so striking.

“I love to see performers who are sharing themselves,” she told an Australian magazine in 2010, on the subject of Simone. “I don't enjoy theatrical music where they are hiding behind a mask or trying to entertain but it's not them."

That, in a nutshell, is some of the problem with tonight’s performance, conceived as part of a new creative partnership between the Southbank Centre and Montreux Jazz Festival. What sounds fantastic on paper – pairing London’s celebrated Nu Civilisation Orchestra with vocalists Bailey Rae, Laura Mvula, China Moses, Ni Maxine, and Tony Njoku – is often a frustratingly empty exercise when we get little sense of why these artists, why these songs, why this moment.

For an event subtitled ‘A Celebration of Nina Simone’, and especially for a collaboration that provides so much potential for storytelling, it’s doubly disappointing. I can understand the temptation to let the performances speak for themselves, but too much goes left unsaid or taken for granted.

It's a shame because, with a few exceptions, the performances are good, ranging from solid to memorably gutsy. Mvula’s take on Janis Ian’s “Stars”, which Simone performed so devastatingly back in ’76, is a jaw-dropping standout, showing how intimately the British singer/songwriter knows her subject, while leaving room to appreciate her own uniqueness.

Her versions of two tracks from Simone’s 1959 debut album – “Plain Gold Ring” and “Little Girl Blue” – are extraordinary too, played and sung with a reverential spark. Mvula has had a rough ride in the industry so far, but the stage is her natural home and there she has star quality to burn.

Moses puts her own passionate stamp on things too, though she sometimes overpowers the material in a way that feels a little incongruous with the setting. Impressive as she is as a singer, her heavy-handed take on “Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” misses the mark, while her attempts to rouse the audience into singing along to “See-Line Woman” get the show off to an awkward start.

To her credit, the sound mixing on the first few songs is surprisingly poor. Feedback peals out through Tony Njoku’s muffled version of “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” and several mic switches go missed, while the string section is sometimes barely audible.

Things improve when Bailey Rae appears to vamp her way through a wonderfully brassy version of “I Put a Spell on You”, capturing some of Simone’s playful dynamism in the years where she would have audiences eating out of her hand. As her 2023 album Black Rainbows so clearly underlined, Bailey Rae’s gift as a singer (and songwriter) stretches far beyond the soft-edged pop with which she made her name, but tonight is all about indulging her inner entertainer with plenty of shoulder-shimmying, hand-on-hip sass. She isn’t the most natural jazz singer, but she has a blast with some of Simone’s lighter material like “Be My Husband” and “My Baby Just Cares for Me”, and mostly nails the smouldering drama of “Feeling Good”.

Suffice to say, the Nu Civilisation Orchestra sound colossal throughout, particularly when given space to shine in an instrumental medley of “African Mailman” and “Sinnerman”. The solos, when they come, are like bolts of coloured fabric cast out over the spellbound crowd. Conductor Peter Edwards does a great job of holding everything together, and it’s clear how much respect the artists have for every other person on the stage.

When Ni Maxine flubs her verse in “Four Women”, forgetting her words and styling it out with some impressive scatting, the other women insist on a take two as an unplanned extra encore. After all, it’s one of Simone’s most powerful works, still relevant and meaningful to many. This time everyone delivers, with a standing ovation as their reward. Tears and hugs follow, and love fills the room.

Overall, while the lows are pretty low (“Mississippi Goddam” is a hot mess, frankly), the uneven highs of the night are enough to carry it over the line. But the missing pieces remain a thorny issue. When at last we do get some rushed comments from the artists on Simone’s bulletproof legacy, right at the end when emotions are running high, it feels too little too late.

Setlist

“See-Line Woman” (China Moses)
“I Loves You Porgy” (Ni Maxine)
“I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free” (Tony Njoku)
“Plain Gold Ring” (Laura Mvula)
“I Put a Spell on You” (Corinne Bailey Rae)
“Be My Husband” (Corinne Bailey Rae, China Moses & Ni Maxine)
“My Baby Just Cares for Me” (Corinne Bailey Rae)
“African Mailman / Sinnerman” (Nu Civilisation Orchestra)
“Little Girl Blue” (Laura Mvula)
“Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” (China Moses)
“Baltimore” (Tony Njoku)
“Four Women” (Laura Mvula, Ni Maxine, Corinne Bailey Rae & China Moses)
“Stars” (Laura Mvula)
“Feeling Good” (Corinne Bailey Rae)
“Mississippi Goddam” (Everyone)
“Four Women” (Laura Mvula, Ni Maxine, Corinne Bailey Rae & China Moses)