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Rating: The dances open with rhythm: Laura Fedele wants to make everyone in the room shake their hips. She does it with "Mississippi Goddam," pounding on her piano and singing the bitterness of being a victim of racial discrimination.
All the tracks on this album, recorded in 2004 in the Demetrio Stratos auditorium of Radio Popolare Milano, were part of Nina Simone's repertoire. Laura Fedele pays homage to her in a very balanced jazz/blues trio, accompanying herself on the piano supported by double bassist Dell'Ora and drummer Castiglioni.
She, the Milanese lady of jazz, uses her voice like an instrument, blending perfectly with her companions and strongly interpreting what she sings. She tells us the stories of Nina Simone's heroines with a never banal voice, sometimes caressing, sometimes childlike and ironic, sometimes angry; only in rare cases does it prevail, becoming the absolute protagonist. I think of "Four Women," a dark and hypnotic track, where we gradually immerse ourselves in the roles of four unfortunate women, who together cover the entire spectrum of skin tones. Excluding the white, clearly. The track is broken by a double bass solo played with the bow and culminates in the vocal explosion of Peaches's verse: she who, translated, "has brown skin and a bad attitude", who "will kill the first bastard she meets because life has been too hard on her".
Laura doesn't resort to predictable vocalizations; her voice remains raw, expressive, and veiled. You can tell I adore her.
In the rest of the album, between trampled loves and jealousies, Laura Fedele unfolds a series of classics, from "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" to "Just Like A Woman," up to a "Lilac Wine" perhaps too close to the Buckleyan interpretation.
A great woman sings her passions and torments with the words of another great one.
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