Mississippi Goddamn: A Celebration of Nina Simone review – singers capture star’s emotional spirit | Music

Nina Simone is a tough singer to take on. Possessed of a mighty voice and virtuosic piano skills, her repertoire spans jazz standards to civil rights anthems, sweeping orchestrations and storytelling balladry. Yet, to do Simone justice, it isn’t simply a case of performing vocal acrobatics and keyboard technique. The task instead is to channel the raw vulnerability and emotional honesty that made her presence so captivating – to find the spirit that led Warren Ellis to keep a piece of her onstage chewing gum for 20 years following her final London performance in 1999.

Tonight’s celebration of Simone’s music takes place on the same stage as that show and features five vocalists. The repertoire is extensive, covering standards such as George Gershwin’s I Loves You, Porgy, featured on Simone’s 1959 debut, to the 1967 civil rights song I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free, the late ‘70s reggae of Baltimore and cinematic melodrama of I Put a Spell on You.

Peter Edwards’s Nu Civilisation Orchestra is masterfully deft in its backing, veering from Gershwin’s luscious strings to a thundering rhythm section on African Mailman and enveloping horn fanfares on I’m Feeling Good. Yet, this is a show for singers. Each admirably presents their own interpretation of the material rather than a pastiche, with somewhat mixed results. Early on, China Moses’s See-Line Woman is partly swallowed by the orchestra’s funky backing and Tony Njoku’s falsetto on I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free strains over the triumphal music. As the show continues, though, the singers hit their stride. Newcomer Ni Maxine beautifully conveys the yearning emotion of I Loves You, Porgy and Moses delivers a confrontingly powerful finale to the storytelling Four Women, but it is Corinne Bailey Rae and Laura Mvula who steal the show.

Rae embodies the innate theatricality of Simone’s music by vamping over the orchestral stabs of I Put a Spell on You and finding a softer register for the coy intimacy of My Baby Just Cares for Me, while Mvula feels Simone’s pain in a standout solo performance of Stars where her voice cracks and whispers as she sings the sombre tale of fading fame. It is a fitting tribute to Simone, a star whose spirited music can still hold a room of thousands captive.