Lenora was initially skeptical about teaching. Ira Wiggins the NCCU Director of Jazz Studies was so moved that after the performance he called to invite her to take a position as a professor at NCCU’s vocal jazz program. In 2004 Lenora performed at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) for a Lyceum Concert series, where Dr. At the height of her success, she ended up leaving the bright lights of the urban East Coast, to perform in a quiet southern state known as much for its tobacco fields as its music, North Carolina. Helm lived in New York for 20 years while touring the country. Ira Wiggins always says ‘keep the main thing the main thing.’ And the main thing is music.” We know that that exists, but it’s all about the music. “I could think like that, but that wouldn’t be productive. The feeling that you are not just representing you, but your entire ethnic group or gender can be crushing, but Lenora has never let that get to her. Going on stage knowing that you will be judged harsher for being a person of color or a woman adds an immense amount of pressure.
THE BEST OF NINA SIMONE SKIN
Knowing that you are being judged simply based on the color of your skin instead of the content of your character can be a shaking experience. “That was the first time I ever encountered overt racism.” In an unfortunate way, this event gave her a closer connection to the struggles of Nina Simone, who was denied entrance into Julliard because of her race. He said they’ll pay for the rest of the month, but they’re not gonna have you back,” she recalled. She performed that night but immediately after the show she was called and told that she would not be allowed to return. She hired two black replacements and returned to the club with an all-black trio. When the two white members in her band informed her they had another gig and could not perform, Lenora disregarded her agent’s advice. The people at the club loved her, and the trio was invited back for another performance. She performed under the constraints and thrived, despite the circumstance. She was a bit taken aback by the request, but this was a major performance and she decided to comply. However, Lenora’s agent also counseled that it would be in her best interest not to hire another black performer for the gig. Despite the club not being known for its fondness for people of color, they hired her. She’d picked up a gig at a prominent club in a Boston suburb with her jazz trio, which was originally comprised of two white members and Lenora, a black woman. After graduating she stayed in Boston to pursue a performing career where she faced one of her first career hardships. She was a teenager when she turned down a scholarship to Cornell University to attend the Berklee School of Music. At eight she decided to move from poetry to music a move that got her noticed. She hopes this performance will “give voice to and create that conversation around women in big bands and jazz in general so it doesn’t become something that is an anomaly or it's not so strange, but it can become more of a norm.”Īs a child in Chicago at the age of seven, a time when most of us are still worrying about tying our sneakers correctly, Lenora wrote her first poem. All proceeds of the event will be donated to support saving Nina Simone’s childhood home in Tryon, N.C.Ī trailblazer in her own right, Lenora sees the performance as an opportunity to honor the legacy of Nina Simone, a woman who fought and broke through many racial and gender barriers during her career.
Lenora handpicked the players that will be performing in the big band alongside Nina’s daughter Lisa Simone on Saturday, August 17 at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh.
This couldn’t be further from the truth in the case of the upcoming Celebrating Nina Simone: Featuring Lisa Simone in Concert. They assume that there is somebody in the band that is calling the shots.” “A lot of times when people see a singer in a big band, they don’t assume that you’re the band leader. “It is a niche in that you don’t find a lot of women big band leaders and often they are instrumentalists,” she said. “It's kind of exciting and scary at the same time,” she says. Lenora Zenzalai Helm Hammonds is a singer, songwriter, composer, educator, and activist who has earned international acclaim for six solo recordings and is one of a handful of female, African American big band leaders. Honoring a Legacy: Lenora Helm Continues Down the Path of Nina Simone
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