In collaboration with the Institut National de l’Audiovisuel
There is an ideal imperfection in Nina Simone that in no way lessens her legend, and there is no need to hide it given that her reputation is already established. Her excesses often border on dissonance, yet without aiming at a blue note now famous in jazz music. Always surpassing herself, never satisfi ed with polished virtuosity, there is still inside her a young black girl whose training as a classical pianist was impeded and redirected to other scenes, and who made a success out of her coolness when reasonable bounds were outstripped. In a spirit typical of the late 1960s, she takes up a path with no guarantees: in hushed tones, neither soprano nor alto, she impedes her own singing with a muffl ed interjection, a brief shout, an ostinato she cannot keep up with on the piano, an immoderate crescendo, a breathtakingly fast accelerando… Dancing in held-back undulations, she demonstrates her surprising restlessness. During a concert, she gives up a song on a whim and improvises another, only to sublimate it.Bernard Lion
