If you wanted to be placed on the edge of your seat, not knowing whether you were going to sit back comfortably or fall headfirst into an abyss, then you really should have been at the Nina Simone concert at The Point on Saturday night. This was a dramatic occasion when the sense of expectation exceeded everything else and when you genuinely didn't know what was going to happen. Aided and abetted by her Musical Director, Al Schackman, and percussionists Paul Robinson and Leo Poldo-Flemming, Dr Nina Simone pulled so many surprises out of the bag (and so few disappointments) that any threat of professional slacking was well and truly avoided.
The disappointments? A shallow, if somewhat inevitable, run through of My Baby Just Cares For Me, a ragged version of Here Comes The Sun that was ludicrously milked for all it was worth, and a few politically ridiculous onstage comments that were lapped up by sections of the close-fisted lackeys in the audience. Oh, and a drum solo.
The highlights? Aside from Simone herself (fiercely proud, defiantly independent, and perhaps the purist, staunchest embodiment of womanhood I've ever witnessed on stage) there were moments of raw truth and rare beauty. Among these was the sight of Simone shimmying across the stage during Sea Lion Woman, the stark, simplistic message of racial inequality in Images, a duet with her daughter on Music For Lovers, and eyebrimming versions of Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Hair and I Loves You Porgy. Topping all of these, however, was a dark theatrical rendition of Brecht/Weill's Pirate Jenny (Black Freighter).
