Lisa Simone Keeper of the Flame
A Daughter’s Tribute to Dr. Nina Simone Big Band Concert. Festival Theatre. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Adelaide Festival Centre. June 22 2024.
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
What a way to end my Adelaide Cabaret Festival experience.! It begins with the big bold sound of an all star 12 piece brass band accompanied by piano guitar and drums. It trumpets triumphantly forth before settling into the jazz rhythms of the Big Band era in homage to the era of Glen Miller and Nina Simone.. Smooth as silk, Lisa Simone slinks and sidles onto the stage. The cyclorama glows red as a backdrop to Simone’s haunting rendition of Miranda Lambert’s Keeper of the Flame. Simone is “walking in her mother’s footsteps, singing her old songs". Her mother blazed this trail she’s treading on. Lisa is the teller of the story, the keeper of the flame, for" the ones before her like fireflies in the rain.”
Lisa assumes her mother’s moniker of High Priestess of Soul, wearing Nina Simone’s mantle with love and pride to continue the fight for freedom and justice. From Pop to Gospel and backed by the rich full sound of the big band Simone found her own true voice in the memory of her mother’s seductive spell.
It is Lisa Simone’s bewitching guile and playful humour that sways the audience and lures them in to the web of homage through the songs her mother gave to the world. She pounds the rocks with her arms flailing at the chain gang injustice of Work Song . This contrasts with the beautiful spiritual faith of Take Me To The Water. The gospel sound continues with Nina Simone’s call to prayer, to survival and the hope for a better world. There is the desperation, the cowardice and the courage of All the way down to the River. The High Priestess of Soul lives on in her daughter, who sings her mother’s songs with pride and the spirit of resolve.
“Are you ready to party?” Simone cries out. “Are you ready?”. The seductress of soul draws her audience to her and they respond with eager anticipation, clapping their hands, singing along with her, following her with their heads as Simone sings through the audience and holds them in awe as she holds a note that soars unleashed through the air. The sound transcends time, releasing the anguish, overcoming the pain and holding the audience in her thrall. Lisa Simone is the new generation. The haunting melody of introspection and search for identity in Nina Simone’s Who Am I? has found the answer in the daughter whose rousing talent and gift to music is her own.
Nina Simone’s legacy lives on in Lisa Simone’s soul stirring legacy. The lessons of struggle and pain become in Simone’s tribute the resilience and the resolve of a new generation, fired by the cries of the past. “I know who I am.” Simone tells the audience. She has become her mother’s legacy. The anguish of the blues is turned to defiance and confidence. It is a promise made by Simone at the start of the concert. It is a promise kept in the powerful rendition of Hold On with the audience chanting ”Hell!” in defiance. Simone keeps the legacy alive.
It is a legacy of hope and the audience leap to their feet, dancing in the rows to the big band sound and lush, powerful rendition of Feeling Good. Nina Simone’s legacy is a new dawn,, a new day, and a new life and Lisa Simone is feeling good.
Keeper of the Flame is a transformative experience. One views the world through a kaleidoscope of emotion, carried along by the stirring sounds of the big band and the rich seductive voice of the High Priestess of her mother’s legacy. The applause echoes through the theatre as the curtain falls on Lisa Simone’s unforgettable and transcendent tribute to the High Priestess of Soul, the great Nina Simone. The flame shines brightly in a daughter’s inspiring homage.
