Shimmery, sensuous Pauline Jean paid a very personal tribute at the Metropolitan Room to the jazz/soul icon, Nina Simone. Backed by a fine-edged foursome of instrumentalists, Jean opened with one of Simone's very first recordings, “Plain Gold Ring.” And with it, pianist Sharp Radway, bassist Corcoran Holt, drummer McClenty Hunter and percussionist Leopold Fleming, made their musical statement and adhered to it faithfully through the entire program: Jean's arrangements would surround her with a strong, relentless and almost hypnotic beat, highlighted by Radway's keyboarding and Fleming, who was Simone's original percussionist, working musical fantasies on his pair of Conga Drums.

Jean's outfit and hair-do accentuated her resemblance to a young Simone. And notwithstanding Jean's more animated singing style and somewhat deeper voice than her venerated song goddess, it was clear from the outset that she would lovingly present both Simone's music and her oft-declared-in-song emotional response to being a woman and being black.

The omnipresent, infectious rhythm proved well matched to the predominantly-blues numbers on the group's song list, which included “Tell Me More and Then Some” and “To Be Young, Gifted and Black.” Simone's “Four Women,” a protest song utilizing the differing shades of skin colors among blacks, evoked the evening's biggest cheers.

Simone, we were told, insisted she wasn't “a jazz singer,” but “a black classical singer.” Call her what you will, her songs—some of which she wrote, some of which she didn't—provided strong material for Jean and her instrumentalists. And while Jean didn't make the same disclaimer, like many jazz singers she would often close her eyes and surrender her contact with the audience, as they became witnesses to their vocalist losing herself in the music of Nina Simone.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
February 22, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org