It's Monday and in ten hours I will be hitting the stage with the return of my Nina Simone show at City Winery Chicago. I have NO idea how many tickets have sold. I checked a week and a half ago and the low sales frightened me. The venue seemed secure that the show will sell well. Of course I am not so sure. I never am. Folks say: "you always sell out!" "You always pack the house!" I never count on that. I push, push, push the show until I am crazy. But you never know ... Dress is laid out. …
Bringing My Nina Simone Show back to Chicago. Monday, November 7th
I first performed my Nina Simone tribute in January 2013 at City Winery Chicago. We sold out. It was my first performance there and my first ticketed sold out show. and now after sold out shows in NYC and Atlanta, I am bringing it back home. The show has evolved. I have evolved as a performer and as a person. Singing Nina Simone's music is quite like coming home for me. And performing her protest songs during these times, on the night before the election, well, it's just crazy Kismet don't you …
Nina Simone & Me.
I'm getting into Nina-mode. Taking on this show is a challenge on some levels (logistically, financially) but it is also the easiest thing I have ever done. Many have questioned my choice to bring the band with me to my show in Atlanta. Why not pick up musicians in Atlanta? The answer is simple: I want a certain level of comfort and ease on stage because I want to be totally free of worry. I need to have my guys (The Shivers) behind me because they know me and will guarantee the best …
Paris 2016
Yep. I went to Paris again. I returned to perform in the Jazz Opera: "Don't worry, Be HaRpy." It was a wonderful trip - grueling (we were driving constantly to rehearsal and soundchecks) but wonderful. But it didn't start off that way. I should note here that things got amazingly better almost immediately, but I have to describe it to you!! …
Diva in the Sky with Redmoon Theater and The Great Chicago Fire Festival.. Feeling Good.
It was the most wonderful performing experience of my life. There I sat on a swing suspended some twenty feet in the air over my audience singing a song that I first sang as a teenager in a high school production of "Roar of the Greasepaint, Smell of the Crowd." "Feeling Good" is such a simple song but thanks to Nina Simone's arrangement, it has plenty of room for drama and dynamics. And then there was the Full Moon in the night's sky shining down on me, …