I love Nina Simone.
I love her because she was always unapologetically true to herself and stood firmly in her power. She was the QUEEN of giving absolutely zero fucks about what anyone thought of her. ✨
And of course, her musicality and her voice are EPIC (but, that’s a given).
Whenever she sang, you could feel her soul. You could feel her power and self-assuredness in every note. It was like a musical window into everything she’s ever lived. Everything that she created was unmistakably Nina, and it was fabulous.
Her entire body of work makes me so happy because it helps to remind me of my own power.
In particular, her rendition of ‘Feeling Good’ especially lights me up…
…I’ve recently been exploring my own, multi-faceted versions of ‘Feeling Good.’
I’m finding that depending on the context within which I sing the song, and the musicians (or lack of musicians) I’m playing with, it alters the mood of the piece.
Depending on the musical environment at hand, I end up expressing various different sides of myself, and the feelings conveyed through the songs are a patchwork of all my life experiences — an amazing technicolor dreamcoat of my soul, if you will.
In the video above, I’m singing ‘Feeling Good’ at a jazz jam with the Poughkeepsie Jazz Project. At a jam, you never know who you’re going to play with and what personalities and styles the other musicians will bring. There’s no plan — you just get up and sing (which, for some people, probably sounds like a nightmare, while for others it sounds like a dream. Lately, I’ve been more in the second camp 😉).
On that particular day, the drummer was really going to town on the triplet rhythms (one-a-let, two-a-let, bam bam bam bam!) and the rest of the rhythm section was leaning into a bluesy vibe.
And so that’s how I sang it.
I dug into the bluesy, slightly jaded, and righteously indignant part of my soul, and went with that.
Of course, the lyrics themselves are beautiful and magical (and not really jaded at all, when you think about it).
Suddenly, the song became “I have a new life, damnit, and look at the whole beautiful world I have before me at my fingertips. I don’t need you — byeeeeeee!”
Suddenly, the song became an anthem of power.
And isn’t that lovely how just a turn of a mood transforms a song into something new and bold and beautiful?
Of course, there’s another way that I sing this song, too…
🌲 🪶 🕊️ 🌸 🌈 🌀 🌊 🐚 💫 ☀️ 🪻 💖 🪷 🧚 🌷 🌼 🌻 🍄 🌱 🌿 🪵 🐋 🕸️ ✨
Any time I find myself singing about nature and animals and the beauty of the world, it usually winds up feeling like a prayer song (an icaro, for example) or something that is a combination of improvisation, jazz, and medicine music all in one — what I like to call ‘Medicine Jazz’. 💖
This second version of ‘Feeling Good’ is a bit more akin to a Medicine Jazz version of the song. Granted, it still has a bluesy, soulful quality to it and there’s remnants of syncopated rhythms scattered throughout (despite the incessant drone of my shruti box).
And, importantly, it still has a feeling of power behind it — albeit, a more understated feeling of power than the first version.
But overall, my second version is a little less self-assured and righteously indignant. The message seems to be more: “Isn’t life mournful and yet joyful at the same time? Let’s celebrate the beauty of that.”
I also have a third way of singing “Feeling Good” which is an even more bare bones version with just my voice, and so it becomes purely a prayer to Nature. A calling in of the birds, and the pines, and the stars, and the breeze. 🕊️ 🌲 ✨ 🍃
All of my versions of ‘Feeling Good’ have different vibes and messages, and yet all of these versions are a version of me.
Some of my friends who know the more spiritual, faerie-vibed, medicine music version of my singing (aka my “Erin the Bard” style of music), might balk a bit to listen to the brashness of my bluesy and jazzy renditions of these songs.
Similarly, some of my jazz friends would probably giggle a little (or just be mildly bored) if they were to listen to my hippie, woo-woo, understated, medicine music versions of things.
I myself find it fascinating, and somewhat confusing, that I can have many (seemingly) contradictory sides to my personality.
But, that’s what being human is all about!
And isn’t it so BEAUTIFUL and BRILLIANT that I can use music to express the multi-faceted dimensions of my soul?!
In the wise words of Walt Whitman …
Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
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