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Mississippi Goddamn: A Celebration of Nina Simone review – singers capture star’s emotional spirit
Corinne Bailey Rae’s vamping and Laura Mvula’s whispering pain steal the show as five vocalists deliver their own interpretations
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. 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. 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.
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