More Tributes 2/9/04

by Alan Greenblatt

The last time out, I was writing about how every concert is now packaged as a tribute. The best tribute I've heard recently came in the form of a new song Rene Marie wrote in honor of Nina Simone, another singer who died last year, which Marie performed at the Kennedy Center Jazz Club.

Marie told a story about being a teenager and having issues with her mom at the time. Then her mom gave her a Nina Simone album and walked out of the room without a word. Simone's deeply felt songs of protest about racial inequality instantly struck a nerve with Marie, as did her songs about her sexuality, and as did a song called "To Be Young, Gifted and Black," which, Marie sang, instantly became her theme song for the next three years.

Marie was able to convey something of the power of Simone's own vocals as she sang lines from the old songs and certainly put across in her own lyrics the sense of how much music can mean to a person when it reaches them at the right moment. It was the rare example of a brand new song clearly tapping into real feelings in a live audience.

That's one of the things that's so impressive about Marie lately. She's always been a terrific singer, with a lovely voice and an incredible emotional openness. She's a smart musician and her arrangements show off both melodic feel and a strong sense of rhythm. One of the other songs she performed was the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night," which she did as a slightly angry blues lament. It makes perfect sense if you slow down the words in your mind.

It's been a hard day's night

And I been work-iiin like a dawg

The one knock against Marie that some critics had as her career got under way a few years ago is that she wasn't adventurous with material, performing mostly familiar standards. Now Marie is finding her voice as a writer. She created a mood of perfect, quiet concentration with another new song, a nostalgia piece recalling growing up in Warrenton, Virginia. Marie's singing is as good as ever and her new material, expressing her own feelings about being a woman and love and home and other admittedly familiar topics, makes her an artist to watch. That's the real tribute to a talent like Nina Simone doing work inspired by her, like her own, but not just singing the same old songs.

But I did greatly enjoy Chuck Redd's tribute the next night at Dumbarton Church to Milt Jackson and Lionel Hampton. Redd, a local drummer and vibes player, put together a quartet of good local players to recreate the tunes of the two giants of the vibes.

Redd recalled meeting Jackson one time. Jackson told him, "If I ever catch you stealing any of my stuff, I'll kill you. So, Chuck added, "I'm glad he's not here tonight. But if Redd invented nothing new, he played with his usual easy swing and polish. Playing tunes like "Avalon", "Midnight Sun", "Summertime", "Django and many others, including the inevitable theme songs "Bags' Groove" (Jackson) and "Flying Home" (Hampton), Redd and the boys played the kind of concert that you could listen to with pure enjoyment. If jazz was always this accessible, well-played and quietly delightful, more people would seek it out.