Lisa Marie Simmons
Copywriter, Ghostwriter, Writer
I use my life as a messy case study for the human condition.
Lisa Marie Simmons is a multi-disciplinary storyteller. She is a singer/songwriter (Ropeadope Records), essayist (Huffington Post, Kweli Journal, The Boston Globe, Family Stories Project, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Jazzfuel, AfroElle), and published poet currently based in Italy. The American debut of NoteSpeak was at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival in Boulder Co. in September 2017. She was invited to be a speaker and performer at the 70th Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado in April 2018. In November 2019, she presented NoteSpeak in Italy, Austria, and Prague. In January 2020, she presented NoteSpeak in India at the Jaipur Music Stage. Ropeadope Records released her poetic/musical album NoteSpeak (Amori e Tragedie in Musica) in March 2020, which received a four-star review from the iconic Downbeat magazine. In October 2021, she flew to meet her birth father Isell in Florida for the first time with Angela Tucker and her Emmy Award-winning husband Bryan Tucker. They shot a documentary on their search for and eventual finding of one another, released later this year. Angela and Lisa co-wrote an essay advocating for the rights of Black fathers for the Harvard Law Bill of Health digital symposium in May 2022. She was invited to perform in the Biennale in Venice in October 2022 for artist Simone Leigh’s Loophole of Retreat. Her album NoteSpeak 12 was released by Ropeadope in February 2023, garnering a rare 5-star review from Downbeat Magazine.
“Poetry and Jazz have been influencing each other for a long time. Lisa Marie Simmons, a poet, singer and composer, draws on that rich history for NoteSpeak 12... As with her previous efforts with the NoteSpeak ensemble, Simmons flows freely between singing and speaking/reciting, blurring the lines between poetry and music.” 5 Stars J. Poet Downbeat Magazine April 2023
“Lisa Marie Simmons - Notespeak 12 A storyteller, an essayist and an impressive singer/songwriter, equipped with an expressive speaking and singing voice. The conclusion and the highlight of this Soul Voices!” 5 Stars Olaf Maikopf JAZZTHETIK Magazin, Münster DE April 2023
“Notespeak 12 is a lyrical album and an ensemble of centuries of the sonic lifeworlds of Black people. I walked away, hearing new articulations of jazz that sounded like Zora Neal Hurston’s words on the page. It’s an ode to the sounds we make in community and punctuated by theatrical curiosity and professional knowledge expressed through well-attended craft. It travels to many places and takes the listeners with it. Notespeak 12 is a well-choreographed journey.” DJ Lynnée Denise Artist, Scholar, Writer
“Notespeak 12 is top-end poetry and top-end jazz, so poet Lisa Marie Simmons and composer Marco Cremaschini set themselves a high bar. But they have succeeded, just like they did on the earlier album Notespeak: Amori e Tragedie In Musica (Ropeadope), a succès d’estime and something of a cult hit following its release in 2020.” 4 Stars Chris May- All About Jazz
Praise for NoteSpeak (Amori e Tragedie in Musica)
“Lisa Marie Simmons has a powerful magnetizing voice for our time- for all time. Authentic and deeply committed.”- Anne Waldman, author of Trickster Feminism (Penguin Poets).
"Across NoteSpeak, the band’s playing remains understated, granting Simmons’ poetry the spotlight. Her words are full of internal rhymes, verbal inflections that move the rhythm in unexpected directions, and juxtapositions of imagery that veer from predictable to wildly creative." 4 Stars - Downbeat Magazine j. poet.
“All too often with projects such as this, banal lyrics diminish the impact and shorten the shelf-life. Simmons' words, however, are genuinely poetic rather than journalistic and are used sparingly; in short, her input works.” – Chris May, All About Jazz.
"Beautiful and Powerful" - Rai Radio 3 "Battiti"
"Lisa Marie Simmons is forging her rightful place in the annals of music history. Her cd, Note Speak: Amori E Tragedie In Musica is poetic mastery of sound and silence." - Regina Harris Baiocchi- composer, author, and poet
"NoteSpeak performed at the closing of the literary festival JLF@Boulder and blew the lid off the house. They had the audience on their feet throughout the incredible 90-minute set! A pure treat!" Sanjoy K. Roy Managing Director of Teamwork Arts. Co-founder, and producer of the Jaipur Literature Festival
"Musically and vocally, NoteSpeak consistently changes, shifting from style to style – acoustic jazz solos into hip-hop beats into harmonized gospel vocals into electronic jazz and fusion into free verse rhyming – and yet seems to constantly groove. Simmons' delivery swims in the deep waters connecting Nina Simone to Jill Scott, completely obliterating the line between vocalist and poetess: Warning like a mother lioness, whippersnapping through urban haunts, and curiously wondering about it all."
Chris M. Slawecki “All About Jazz”
“Poetry and Jazz have been influencing each other for a long time. Lisa Marie Simmons, a poet, singer and composer, draws on that rich history for NoteSpeak 12... As with her previous efforts with the NoteSpeak ensemble, Simmons flows freely between singing and speaking/reciting, blurring the lines between poetry and music.” 5 Stars J. Poet Downbeat Magazine April 2023
“Lisa Marie Simmons - Notespeak 12 A storyteller, an essayist and an impressive singer/songwriter, equipped with an expressive speaking and singing voice. The conclusion and the highlight of this Soul Voices!” 5 Stars Olaf Maikopf JAZZTHETIK Magazin, Münster DE April 2023
“Notespeak 12 is a lyrical album and an ensemble of centuries of the sonic lifeworlds of Black people. I walked away, hearing new articulations of jazz that sounded like Zora Neal Hurston’s words on the page. It’s an ode to the sounds we make in community and punctuated by theatrical curiosity and professional knowledge expressed through well-attended craft. It travels to many places and takes the listeners with it. Notespeak 12 is a well-choreographed journey.” DJ Lynnée Denise Artist, Scholar, Writer
“Notespeak 12 is top-end poetry and top-end jazz, so poet Lisa Marie Simmons and composer Marco Cremaschini set themselves a high bar. But they have succeeded, just like they did on the earlier album Notespeak: Amori e Tragedie In Musica (Ropeadope), a succès d’estime and something of a cult hit following its release in 2020.” 4 Stars Chris May- All About Jazz
Praise for NoteSpeak (Amori e Tragedie in Musica)
“Lisa Marie Simmons has a powerful magnetizing voice for our time- for all time. Authentic and deeply committed.”- Anne Waldman, author of Trickster Feminism (Penguin Poets).
"Across NoteSpeak, the band’s playing remains understated, granting Simmons’ poetry the spotlight. Her words are full of internal rhymes, verbal inflections that move the rhythm in unexpected directions, and juxtapositions of imagery that veer from predictable to wildly creative." 4 Stars - Downbeat Magazine j. poet.
“All too often with projects such as this, banal lyrics diminish the impact and shorten the shelf-life. Simmons' words, however, are genuinely poetic rather than journalistic and are used sparingly; in short, her input works.” – Chris May, All About Jazz.
"Beautiful and Powerful" - Rai Radio 3 "Battiti"
"Lisa Marie Simmons is forging her rightful place in the annals of music history. Her cd, Note Speak: Amori E Tragedie In Musica is poetic mastery of sound and silence." - Regina Harris Baiocchi- composer, author, and poet
"NoteSpeak performed at the closing of the literary festival JLF@Boulder and blew the lid off the house. They had the audience on their feet throughout the incredible 90-minute set! A pure treat!" Sanjoy K. Roy Managing Director of Teamwork Arts. Co-founder, and producer of the Jaipur Literature Festival
"Musically and vocally, NoteSpeak consistently changes, shifting from style to style – acoustic jazz solos into hip-hop beats into harmonized gospel vocals into electronic jazz and fusion into free verse rhyming – and yet seems to constantly groove. Simmons' delivery swims in the deep waters connecting Nina Simone to Jill Scott, completely obliterating the line between vocalist and poetess: Warning like a mother lioness, whippersnapping through urban haunts, and curiously wondering about it all."
Chris M. Slawecki “All About Jazz”
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Milan, Metropolitan City of Milan, Italy|English, Italian
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