Emmy award-winning singer and composer Lisa Simone is touring a tribute show Keeper Of The Flame A Daughter’s Tribute to Dr Nina Simone.
Nina Simone, who was born 90 years ago and died 20 years ago, is a towering figure in popular music.
Simone was also a troubled and difficult woman and Lisa’s childhood was blighted by her mercurial mother’s moods.
Lisa released her first solo album All is Well in 2013, and co-produced the 2016 Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary about her mother's life, What Happened, Miss Simone?
Photo: JOSEPH EID
She is now comfortable with how her relationship with her mother ended, she tells Kim Hill.
“I'm celebrating her, celebrating my legacy. My mother did the best she could under very uncertain and painful circumstances. And she was probably one of the loneliest people that I've ever known.
“And she paid a huge price to be the woman that we all love, revere and remember, and so I've done a lot of forgiveness work and removed many of the parts of my heart that were in pain.”
She had rapprochement with her mother while she was still alive, she says.
“I put her on what I call a training programme in how to love me when I realised I couldn't run far enough away, because somehow she'd always find me.
"And when I also realised that as the only child eventually the time would come when I would have to turn around and face my legacy in a way that I had never imagined I would have to do, I made a different decision that instead of running, I would turn around and embrace it.”
It didn’t all go smoothly, however, Simone says.
“There was the grinding of gears. I mean, we weren't just dealing with somebody who was bipolar. We're dealing with a genius.
“Most geniuses throughout history, I've challenged every person I've ever spoken to, please educate me on a happy genius, is there one?
“They all have their issues, their difficulties, their challenges, they all sacrificed greatly to leave us with the gems that we still benefit from today.”
After serving 10 years in the military, (much to her mother's dismay) Simone felt the call of music, she says.
“I discovered singing again while I was in the military, people found out that I had a nice voice, I started getting offers to sing with other singers, which led to musicians asking me to sing with their bands. And then all of a sudden, I had an epiphany one day, I was 28, I was still on active duty.
Nina Simone performing in Paris, 1991. Photo: BERTRAND GUAY
“And I was like, wait a second, maybe this is what I should be doing with my life. What a novel idea; I enjoy it, it makes me happy, it makes other people happy. But none of the adults in my life had ever encouraged me to do it as a profession.”
She had a peripatetic childhood with her mother, she says.
“She called us nomads. She was the first person who ever said that word to me. She said, ‘we're nomads now.’
“It wasn't easy a lot of shifts took place. My father wasn't around anymore. The home I was raised in was not there anymore. I was going from home-to-home, school-to-school, place-to-place, and also dealing with a person who was recovering from a messy divorce.”
Her mother taught her a valuable lesson, she says.
“When it comes to my own career, my own music, my own children, people have asked me in the past, what's the best thing your mom ever taught you?
“And for a while, I would say she taught me what not to do, which is just as important as teaching your kids what to do.
“And so, I have my own catalogue, I have my own music, I have my own portion of this legacy that I am carrying on with joy, and I pass down to my children.”
