Nina Simone’s work is constantly ripe for interpretation and re-interpretation. With a timeless catalogue marrying romantic tumult with political fury, it’s hard to resist the opportunity to hear these thrilling songs rendered live with an orchestra. The test is whether such tributes can deliver anything close to the impact of the original recordings, which this outing at the Royal Festival Hall certainly managed – if somewhat unevenly.

This event – celebrating a new partnership between the Southbank Centre and the Montreux Jazz Festival, and kicking off a weekend long residency – was reminiscent of the Nina Simone-themed BBC Proms event of 2019. In fact, Jules Buckley, who conducted the Nina Proms, provided the arrangements; the setlist was near-identical; and both events were titled after Simone’s most well-known protest song, the incandescent ‘Mississippi Goddam’.

This outing wasn’t as strong, let’s get that out of the way: at times, material was poorly matched to the singers, rendering some potential showstoppers as non-starters. There was some nail-biting awkwardness where vocalists fell out of sync with the orchestra, necessitating a reprise of the otherwise riveting ‘Four Women’.

But the Nu Civilisation Orchestra, conducted by Peter Edwards (who has grown in confidence after his exemplary job backing Chaka Khan last summer), have never sounded better, particularly their lively string section. Bonus points also for the rock grunge given to the usually a cappella ‘Be My Husband’.

Corinne Bailey Rae led the cadre of singers. Known to most listeners for her dulcet folk-soul originals, she conjured up the requisite menace needed to sell ‘I Put a Spell on You’ as well as the delicious wonderment of ‘Feeling Good’. Laura Mvula almost stole the show with a piano driven take on Janis Ian’s ‘Stars’ – an homage to Simone’s performance of that same song at the 1976 Montreux Jazz Festival, and the one major differentiator between this and the previous Proms event. China Moses, perhaps one of the finest voices in contemporary jazz and soul, stomped through ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ with indignation and did wonders with the final, bone-chilling verse of ‘Four Women’. Addressing the audience after the bows, Moses spoke with spontaneous passion about Simone’s genius, of which events like these serve as a powerful reminder.