Vocalist Simone returns to the Blue Note for the second time in her career almost twenty-five years after her mother Nina Simone played her only run at the Blue Note in 1984. Simone has made a career for herself in the jazz world and on Broadway. She's played lead roles in numerous national tours including Rent, Aida, Jesus Christ Superstar, among others. Three years after her mother's death in 2003, Simone paid her tribute at a Town Hall show that became the concept for her latest record, Simone On Simone. Released in February, 2008, Simone On Simone (her first full length album) is a big band tribute to her mother, produced by famed jazz musician and arranger Bob Belden. "This is my tribute to my mother, a chance for me to do the songs I love the most the way I hear them," says Simone. "It's a glimpse of my life over four decades…"
Simone will perform on Thursday, November 13, 2008; Sets @ 8pm & 10:30pm. Cost is $25 @ table / $15 @ bar. The Blue Note is located at 131 W 3rd. St, New York, NY 10012
She is her own woman, a singer, songwriter and performer whose ability to transcend genres echoes the tradition of her mother, musical icon and pioneer Nina Simone. Blessed with a rich vocal range, an innate skill for lyrical interpretation and a soul-deep understanding of music as a means of healing, empowerment and celebration, Simone is very much her mother's daughter, she is most assuredly a multi-talented artist in her own right.
A highly-praised live performer whose impressive resume includes starring roles on Broadway in such acclaimed musicals as Rent and Aida, Simone has developed an exciting and diverse repertoire of pop, soul, jazz, rock and funk, expressed in shows she's done throughout the U.S. and in the UK, Ireland, Holland, Finland, Spain and France. With the upcoming February 2008 release of her first full-length album, Simone On Simone (a big band tribute to her mother produced by famed jazz musician and arranger Bob Belden), music lovers worldwide will discover the vocal dynamism that live audiences have witnessed for over a decade. "This is my tribute to my mother, a chance for me to do the songs I love the most the way I hear them. It's a glimpse of my life over four decades…" Born Lisa Celeste Stroud in Mount Vernon in upstate New York, Simone's earliest exposure to music naturally came through her mother's work as a globally-loved musician and freedom fighter.
On April 21, 2006, three years after her mother's passing, Simone paid tribute to her at Town Hall in New York, at the very venue where forty-seven years earlier a 26-year old Nina Simone had enjoyed her first major show in the city. With some of the original members of the band who had accompanied her mother then (including longtime musical associate, guitarist Al Shackman), Simone's spellbinding, soulful performance turned into the genesis for the recording of Simone On Simone. "The idea had been pitched to me before but I had been writing a lot of my own material for almost ten years and my goal was to record those songs. It felt like an obstacle between me and that goal to do a tribute record to my mother. But after the Town Hall performance, I started considering it seriously…"
In addition to completing work on her debut CD in 2007, Simone performed in a week-long St. Louis production of Les Miserables and did shows with "The Daughters Of Soul" in the U.K. and Holland. Since her mother's passing, she has been busy managing Nina Simone's extensive estate as well as co-founding in 2003, the Nina Simone Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission – fulfilling her mother's wish – is to raise money for the education of African-American children and children of African descent.
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