Ledisi Ledisi Sings Nina LP

It takes a bold talent to step into the shoes of Nina Simone. Ledisi has already shown she's up for the challenge, taking on the legendary musician's emotionally searing and socially conscious songs on her PBS special Ledisi Live: A Tribute to Nina Simone. Through the seven songs on this album, Ledisi honors Simone as a guiding force in her life during both the high and low times.

In an interview with DownBeat, Ledisi shared that growing up, "My mom would wake us up to 'Mississippi Goddam' because we wouldn't get up in the mornings. I thought it was my mom's song. Mom was preparing us for the world. She was preparing us for, 'Your Black skin ain't going to be enough, or it's going to be everything and not supposed to be everything. What's [inside] is supposed to be everything.'

"In the darkest moment, [Simone] comes back up again when I'm in my twenties and forced me to study her because she saved my life pretty much. I was on the porch in a white rocking chair listening to the radio: KPFA. I was in Oakland and full of bills, exhausted, done with life. I just wanted to go. And 'Trouble In Mind' started to play, this loud piano ... just bam! And I went, 'Who is that?' I walked into the living room and sat there and made myself listen, and it was Nina singing all the words that described my mood. She became a mood for me ... and she just kept interrupting my life."

"I like to honor her by touching and agreeing on certain things she would do and incorporate, but I'm not trying to be her," explained Ledisi. "I want to be me while honoring her and that's why I added all my modern twist and make sure I'm who I am because there is never going to be another Nina, ever."

2021 Grammy winner Ledisi is a twelve time Grammy-nominated powerhouse vocalist with a career spanning almost two decades. Since arriving on the scene in the late 1990s, she's garnered three Soul Train Music awards, an NAACP Theater Award and six NAACP Image Award nominations. Most recently, Ledisi received two LA Alliance Ovation Award nominations one for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

Born in New Orleans and raised in Oakland, CA, Ledisi has wowed fans with her unparallelled vocals ever since she burst onto the scene. She has truly earned a place in the pantheon of the greatest singers of her generation. Ledisi is a favorite of The Obamas and a long list of icons including the late Prince, Patti LaBelle, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan and so many more. She has headlined two nationally sold-out tours, performed alongside Dave Matthews, Kelly Clarkson, Vince Gill and Maxwell as well as jazz greats Herbie Hancock and Patti Austin.

No stranger to the film and television world, Ledisi landed her first feature singing in the George Clooney-directed film Leatherheads. In 2015 she landed a role in the Oscar-nominated movie Selma portraying the great Mahalia Jackson, and had a notable performance in Gabourney Sidibe's Shatterbox Anthology film, The Tale Of Four. Ledisi secured her first major television role playing the legendary Patti LaBelle on the hit BET series American Soul. She also starred in the BET+ plus drama Twice Bitten, and landed the starring role in the film Remember Me: The Story Of Mahalia Jackson. She will also portray the incomparable Gladys Knight in the long-awaited film based on Neil Bogart's career , Spinning Gold, The Story of Casablanca Records.

Ledisi has also been active in the theater, making her debut as a Radio and Washing Machine understudy on Broadway appearing in Tony Kushner's Caroline Or Change directed by George C. Wolfe. She helped workshop the Tony Award-winning musical The Color Purple, and then began her recording career signing a deal with Verve/Universal Music Group. Ledisi returned to theatre in 2019 as The Ancestor in the critically acclaimed off broadway musical, Witness Uganda by Griffith Matthews and Matt Gould, the role for which she received the LA Alliance Ovation Award nomination. Also in 2019, she co-wrote and co-produced her one woman show, The Legend Of Little Girl Blue. The show premiered at the Wallis Theatre in Beverly Hills to rave reviews with 19-sold out shows.

Ledisi never dares to imitate Simone's singing; her focus is on keeping Simone's energy alive. Throughout this otherworldly recording, she maintains her identity, while proving that she can hold her own in multiple genres, just like Nina.

'Feeling Good' and 'My Baby Just Cares for Me' - the latter updated with some winking modern references - seemed done to death until Ledisi's frisky resuscitations here. On a stark and stirring 'Ne me quitte pas,' Ledisi craftily switches from Jacques Brel's original French lyrics to Rod McKuen's English adaptation. 'Work Song' is flashier without trivializing the subject's grave circumstances. 'I'm Going Back Home,' high-energy gospel in original form, gets a brilliant NOLA second-line overhaul that celebrates Ledisi's origin and inspiration with equally elevated levels of conviction. What's most appealing is that Ledisi is herself at all times, empowered by Simone yet utterly distinct. Whereas most tribute sets are merely pleasant stop-gaps between proper LPs, this is as crucial to Ledisi's discography as any of her four Grammy-nominated albums. She put all of herself into it.

It's hard to imagine a more perfect tribute to the 'High Priestess of Soul'... although some of the lyrics were penned more than half a century ago, Ledisi molds them with contemporary hands, creating a stunning piece of art. It is a thank-you to the voice that led to her salvation. It is a note of encouragement for those who may find themselves in a dark space. It is a prayer for fewer dark spaces for us all.

This is a brilliant recording.