You may have thought that her acclaimed previous show, To Nina: A Tribute to Nina Simone, completed Natalie Douglas’s salute to the complex singer/pianist, Nina Simone.  Douglas proves in Nina 2, however, that the breadth of Simone’s charisma and music plays on and, like Nina Simone, Natalie Douglas is captured by the magic of humanity.  This new tribute is in place, full and complete.  As Douglas says, “There will probably even be a Nina 400.”  Nina Simone had a lot of stories to tell, and Douglas is another lady who loves to tell stories with passion, nuance, fierce intelligence and her own infectious personality.

Douglas begins Nina 2 with a whispery chorus opener, “I’m as restless as a willow in a windstorm,” from Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s “It Might As Well Be Spring.” This song of a young woman’s jumpy discontent becomes a gripping intro to this compendium of Nina Simone’s musical mosaic, with a lovely rendition of notes flickering down at the end.  The song is one of various covers that Simone recorded.  Another riveting segment of covers includes a carefully shaded “Mr. Bojangles” (Jerry Jeff Walker), “Nobody” (Alex Rogers and Bert Williams) and also Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman.” With Douglas’s long, lingering lines and honed breath control, “Wild Is the Wind” (Ned Washington and Dimitri Tiomkin) was theatrical but controlled.

Simone’s repertoire extends through pop, soul, rhythm & blues, folk.  She often called herself mostly a folk singer, reflecting the heart and passions of ordinary people and she particularly touched them with her inspirational tribute to writer, Lorraine Hansberry, “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” (music by Simone; lyrics by Weldon Irvine). She had a fierce social conscience, demonstrated here with “Mississippi Goddam,” a galloping militant tribute in response to a church bombing that killed four black children.

With fine backing by Sean Harkness on guitar, Saadi Zain on bass, Joe Choroszewski on drums, Brian Nash on keyboard and longtime Musical Director Mark Hartman on piano, Douglas had ample opportunity to let loose.  Particularly rousing was “Feelin’ Good” (Leslie Bricusse/Anthony Newley) and her encore of Screamin' Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You.”

With perky patter, skittery, sparkling Natalie Douglas eloquently interprets Nina Simone’s harsh stare at reality.  As she says, “Nina Simone sang nothing but hard songs,” technically and emotionally difficult.  In different ways, both singers communicate the layers of human emotion with clarity and depth.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
September 12, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org