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"I think Hall must have attached heaven to her fingertips, because her keyboard technical command and sweet cream execution of finely chimed virtuoso passages was nothing short of paradise. "
Like the river Jordan, Kim Nalley's vocal strolls through the valley of human emotion finding in "her" course a way to renew and build bridges for both the satisfied and the weary. She sang Saturday night at Pacifica's Sanchez Concert Hall. She sang blues. She sang gospel. She held rich bottom notes in the palm of her vocal then spun them out coolly till they reached right up and held onto the stars. She sang in tribute to one of her heroes, Nina Simone - and like Nina Simone, Nalley is able to vocally plow a mighty road of jazz and spiritual, classical, folk, blues, pop, African chant and freedom without losing a note, without relinquishing her spell. Typical of a Kim Nalley performance, every seat in the house was taken. Also typical, each song she sang was followed by booming applause and there was more than one standing ovation.
Nothing but A-listers performed with Miss Nalley on Saturday night's stage: Tammy Hall on piano, Josh Workman on guitar, Mike Bacile on bass and Kent Bryson on drums. And these people aren't A-listers just because of the names they have played with, though that list is considerable. No, these musicians are A-listers because of what they make us hear and feel. I think Hall must have attached heaven to her fingertips, because her keyboard technical command and sweet cream execution of finely chimed virtuoso passages was nothing short of paradise. Workman on guitar is so obviously at ease in every musical genre that you can just picture a couple of back porch guardian tutors like John Lee Hooker and Merle Travis tipping their hats in admiration. Bacile settles his fingers on string bass like a chocolaty shake mixer all yummy and fine. Bryson on traps is pulse, is soul rhythm, is alley smarts and class.
Richard Jones wrote the pulpit breather "Trouble In The Mind" in 1927. Nina Simone would make it one of her chart stoppers and Kim Nalley opened her Saturday night program striding up the Sanchez aisle bearing out the singing message of this "sun gonna shine" song - and the temperature never dipped below rise. At the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival, Nina Simone took down the house with her version of the 1879 song by James Bland "In The Evening By The Moonlight." In 2005 singer Kim Nalley stole the moon right out of the sky as she and pianist Tammy Hall reintroduced this song in a vocal and piano that defined gladness. Workman came in later on preacher streamed guitar and then Hall let loose on saloon roll piano and authentic razzmatazz while Nalley, she just kept her vocal on pulse pounding sublime. Dang if the place didn't nearly collapse from all the heaps of breathing.
Carefully crafting each phrase and its nuance, Nalley reached deep into her vocal range and lit the tale of the scorcher "Other Woman" (Jesse Mae Robinson). Then Kim made like a melody wind just snap dancing on the water with her rendition of the signature Simone "My Baby Just Cares For Me" (Gus Kahn/Walter Donaldson). Drums, guitar and Nalley vocal wove in and out of Latin and West African rhythmic shadows on the body stirrer "See-Line Woman" (George Bass). Nalley closed her first set right into the mystical with her heart shaping driver "I Put A Spell On You" (Screamin' Jay Hawkins). Blended, simmering, sustained elusiveness, Ms. Nalley's vocal was inexhaustible melodic poetry.
Nalley promised that the second half of her show was going to delve into the political and the raw honesty that was Nina Simone. Simone born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina in 1933 was recognized as a piano prodigy at age four. When she had her public piano debut at age 10, her parents originally seated in the front row, were forced to move to the back to accommodate the white customers. This gave Simone no wide-eyed perspective. The town she grew up in, recognizing her artistry raised money and Simone was able to begin studies at Julliard. However, the color of her skin bumped her from furthering her piano education and so Simone changed her name and started her singing career at an Atlantic City nightclub. She would go on to sing a great book of both popular and/or politically charged songs. When she saw a wrong she expressed it all in the timbre of her vocal and eventually she found escape from the racism of her country by leaving her country. Simone died at home on April 21, 2003 in the South of France.
Nalley's second set began with a musical sensual quiver, the Simone written "Do I Move You." Nalley next delivered "You Can Have Him (I Don't Want Him)" (Irving Berlin), with a "dignity of deportment." A little sassy splash tempter rode out the rhythm and vocal on "Forbidden Fruit" (Oscar Brown Jr.) Nalley's rightfully female voiced "The House Of The Rising Sun" was growling right-on. Nalley then launched into the Simone written "Mississippi Goddam." This song written in outrage following the murders of: Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14) and Cynthia Wesley (14) on Sunday, September 15, 1963 at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was a mix of vaudevillian slappy music with lyrics that ground out prayers for peace and human decency and Nalley's version of it shouted out a wallop. Nalley also sang "Why? (The King Of Love Is Dead)" (Gene Taylor)." This song about Martin Luther King reclaimed old tears and some never closed wounds in the gentle sea of Nalley's beautiful and extraordinarily moving vocal. A strong message delivered by midnight drums and curvy vocals softened the lament of the Simone written "Four Women."
Nalley's voice and presence is elegance measured by the strength of clarity and the dignity of vision with an in-built smile to turn the world on bright. Too many stars to rate.
Concert Review: Kim Nalley has a vocal that makes the world spin bright -- Jean Bartlett, Arts Correspondent, Pacifica Tribune, August 25 2005
