Warren Ellis, founder member of The Dirty Three and long-time collaborator of Nick Cave in The Bad Seeds, has written a book entitled ’Nina Simone’s Gum’. After a concert given by Nina Simone Warren Ellis saved a piece of gum that the musician, composer, arranger and singer had left stuck to the instrument. Ellis was struck by how Simone transformed from a frail old person to a forceful, physical and impassioned performer the moment the performance began. He preserved the gum as a relic of this celebration of the embodied  and transformative (at least temporarily) power of creative energy. I believe it has been recast in other materials.

In this attempt to preserve it the gum has been transformed over time into a hybrid relic/sculpture and it inspired Ellis to essay his thoughts on the ideas, emotions and memories associated with it. 

I have not read the book. I will. It has already caused me to recall the time I was fortunate enough to see Nina Simone in concert myself. In common with Warren Ellis I was impressed to the point of inspiration by the transformation that occurred  in the seconds as the ageing musician took her place at the piano, raised her hands with some visible difficulty and lowered them to the keys. Contact with her instrument seemed to fill her with a rejuvenating force.

There was something else though, something other than the majesty and passion. There was hubris. There were the slightly embarrassing, ill-informed asides about Irish politics, the proclamations of a person perhaps a little too used to being worshipped. No doubt she had earned it but there was some confusion between the person channeling all that power and the power itself. A little too much belief invested in the priest and not the sacrament.

No doubt that is harsh. Perhaps I am being begrudging but it is the idea that I keep returning to thinking of Ms. Simone’s gum. There are no heroes and relics are destroyed in their preservation. The thing that transforms, the thing itself is something more difficult to grasp and also more accessible. It does not require one to be a genius or a hero. It requires attention and a willingness to look for the small things that you can invest meaning in and possibly share with others.

It possesses a person; a person does not possess it. Getting the two things mixed up does no-one any good. Getting it right is what makes us want to save concert tickets, photographs and even little pieces of gum.