Montreux jazz festival pays tribute to Nina Simone

By Stephanie Nebehay

MONTREUX, Switzerland (Reuters) - African American singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone was celebrated at the Montreux jazz festival in a tribute by four black women to the "High Priestess of Soul".

Her daughter Lisa, known by the stage name "Simone", as well as Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright and Angelique Kidjo, sang numbers from her repertoire including "I Loves you Porgy", "My Baby Just Cares for Me", "Feeling Good", and "Ne Me Quitte Pas".

They joined together for an encore of "Four Women", written by Simone in 1966 as a bitter lament of four black women of varying skin tone.

"We're having a fine time celebrating the legacy of my mother. Had she known it, she would have said 'let me sit back and see how much the world loves me'," Lisa Simone told the Saturday night crowd before singing "Keeper of the Flame".

"This has been a dream of mine for a very long time," said the daughter of the jazz musician who used her music as a vehicle for social commentary. Nina Simone died in France in 2003.

"SING THE TRUTH"

Claude Nobs, founder of the Swiss festival now in its 43rd year, opened the show billed as "Sing the Truth: Homage to Nina Simone".