Nina Simone's Gum: A Memoir of Things Lost and Found

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The 66-year-old star slowly made her way to the piano, sat down, took the gum from her mouth and stuck it on a towel atop the Steinway. As he does so, he weaves in ardent anecdotes about artists he’s admired, including the Greek musician Arleta, the jazz composer Alice Coltrane, and the poet Emily Dickinson. I want to build this big stone replica of the gum and place it in the middle of a water feature so that the bears and monkeys can play on it. On my days off from work, I like to lay in bed and just take my sweet time getting ready to join the rest of the world.

Ellis talks with wonder about the making of Ghosteen, the celestial-sounding record he and Cave created together in Malibu in 2018.In 2019, Cave - his collaborator and great friend - asked Warren if there was anything he could contribute to display in his Stranger Than Kindness exhibition.

After the show, in a state of transcendent awe, Warren Ellis crept onto the stage and took Simone’s piece of chewed gum from the piano, wrapped it in her stage towel and placed it in a Tower Records bag. The story it tells is of a man from his childhood thru to present time and how he values of small things as l do, a collector of trivial things but each one is special for a reason. Ellis weaves what he learned from Nina Simone, her fearless music and defiant life, throughout the book as well, including recollections from other people who were present at the show at which he nabbed the gum, creating an informal oral history. Simone, towards the end of her life and in poor health, went from an apparently shaky start to a barnstorming, blinding finish.kad Warrenas – ypatingas, kažkoks truputį pusdievis, neabejotinai ir truputį išprotėjęs genijus, galintis prakalbinti bet kurį instrumentą, bet ši knyga įrodo, kad jis dar ir traukia panašius į save – jautrius ir ypatingus, galinčius suprasti, kuo dviejų dešimtmečių senumo gumos gabaliukas yra vertas ne menkesnės pagarbos, nei koks Monet originalas. Sahneye çıkarken ağzında bir sakız vardır, piyanosunun başına oturunca bu sakızı da çıkarıp piyanonun alt tarafına yapıştırır. Warren Ellis is one of the most distinguished musicians in today's music and his colab with Nick Cave is just amazing. Through writing the book, Ellis also reconnected with older brother Stephen, the two having drifted apart over the years. This book was a beautiful reminder of why we collect these items and of the magic they can hold within them.

What a thrill to see a person whose work gives a little extra beauty and meaning to our lives casually inhabiting the same physical space!Indeed, one of the key ideas of the book is about the way friendships are deepened by things – empty bottles, old VHS tapes, fading pictures, scraps of paper – that often are lost, but which exercise a power even in their absence. His first instrument was a Hofner piano accordion which he found as a child while playing on a local rubbish dump – “I stepped on it and heard it wheeze. A refreshing read, Nina Simone's Gum blends left-field impulses to the simple desire to communicate, resulting in one of 2021's most unusual yet gripping reads. This is a difficult book to review as I do not usually read music biographies (despite my love of music) as this is an ARC read.