Nina Simone | Suzanne, Teatro Sistina, Rome, 3 November 1969
- 1. @1:23 when she comes in with some mad syncopation which makes the line sound like a challenge rather than a quiet admission to self as in Leonard Cohen’s version.
- 2. how perfectly her headwrap is tied
- 3. when she starts tinkering on the piano and at first you’re all: uh-oh, Nina, no that’s some whack calypso, and then it clicks that she’s picking out some fragment of the music that was already there, waiting to be foregrounded.
- 4. the robust confidence of her voice. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her sing quite like this.
- 5. most people clap along to music and it’s like, oh how nice, they’re enjoying the beat/melody. Nina claps like a threat: “y’all.better.stay-in-time” …
- 6. and on the other hand when she dances she by turns abandons her body to the music and commands it
- 7. the way Suzanne becomes he in the middle of the song
- 8. an anecdote from that show