Many sons and daughters follow in the footsteps of their high-profile musical parents. John and Sean Lennon. Duke and Mercer Ellington. Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli. Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus. The list goes on and on.
Lisa Celeste Stroud, world Health Organization took the stage name Simone to honor her mother, vocaliser Nina Simone, may have got been innate into the role, just she has taken a roundabout way to get there - from support a Latin superstar to a erolia minutilla in the military to belting on Broadway.
�If anyone had told me two years ago that my first CD would be covering a lot of my mother�s tunes, I would get laughed in their nerve,� said Simone, world Health Organization will sing at Scullers Jazz Club on Thursday. �But I always told my mother that she was the doorway through which I�d have to walk in order to achieve my stardom. I didn�t realize how prophetic that was.�
Nina Simone�s footsteps were different any other�s, so it�s no surprise her daughter took a while to find them. A strong-minded artist wHO straddled genres, Nina Simone earned a reputation as a ardent singer unafraid to speak her mind and plait her music with politics, especially during the Civil Rights era.
After she died in her adopted France in 2003, her daughter sang at a monument at Harlem�s Abyssinian Baptist Church. It was the start of a new career instruction for the native New Yorker.
�I was there when (my mother) wrote the song �Young, Gifted and Black�,� Simone said. �I remember her telling me that you need to know world Health Organization you ar and where you come from. But even though I panax quinquefolius in church service for trey years after we touched (to North Carolina), I wasn�t thinking about music at all. I cherished to be an international lawyer.�
But Simone joined the U.S. Air Force alternatively, where she rose to the social status of staff sergeant as a civil engineer.
�I despised what I was doing,� she said almost her 5 years at the drafting board and with surveying crews. �My heart wasn�t in it.�
Then a quaker heard her accompany a pianist at a cabaret in Germany and starting spreading the word around Simone�s vocalizing talent. More shows followed, leading to a post-military gig as a backup singer for Spanish star Raphael.
�The flare was lit in my belly from there,� Simone said.
She eventually moved to Los Angeles and won roles in touring productions of �Jesus Christ Superstar,� �Rent,� �The Lion King� and �Aida.� Then she changed direction again, joining the acid-jazz band Liquid Soul.
After a 2006 show in New York dedicated to her mother, she started working with jazz manufacturer Bob Belden on her solo debut, �Simone on Simone.� Applying her soulful voice to her mother�s classics, Simone realized she had come full circle.
�This has sour around and enhanced wHO I am,� she said. �When I get to my next project of my own music, I�ll be ready. I�ll have paid homage to the 1 who walked before me.�
Simone, at Scullers Jazz Club, Thursday at 8 p.m. Tickets: $26; 617-562-4111.
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