Realising American dreams

John Legend is not an angel. But he came to Auriol Hays as something like that in a dream. The award-winning American r&b singer was sporting an all-white suit when the Mother City-born and raised Hays saw him in her sleep. “You see, I went to a John Legend concert in Cape Town,” begins Hays, “and then after that I had a dream about him.”

She continues: “He was just standing there in front of me and was saying something, but I couldn’t hear him. There were all these people around us who were making a noise and eventually I just heard him say: ‘When you’re ready I’ll be waiting for you’.”

It wasn’t a seductive statement that was made by the crooner. It was a confirmation of her destiny. So what did Legend mean?

“I think that dream was showing me that I hadn’t been hearing what I was meant to do because I was just distracted by the bullshit around me.”

As Hays, who suppressed her desire to be a singer by remaining a writer at a communications firm for years, puts it: “You know when you wake up and go to work, but you’re always thinking, ‘what am I doing with my life?’ “

She nods vigorously: “I just knew that if you’re working for someone, you can only grow if you leave their space.”

So after Legend’s profound performance and appearance in her slumber, Hays left that space for the stage.

A wife and mom to a 12-year-old girl, she recorded her debut album, Behind Closed Doors, and even garnered a Sama nomination for her hit pop song, Turn Up The Volume. But jazz and soul music, as will be heard in her forthcoming album, Caught In Between, are the genres her rich, full voice excels in.

But getting to this point wasn’t always a piece of cake. Having three dreams that saw Legend give her a message each time meant “he wasn’t God speaking to me”. She laughs at the thought.

“John Legend was a symbol of music because with each dream I’d have he would be closer, talking to me about music. Then I also had a dream that Ella Fitzgerald was sitting in a wheelchair and she was scatting. Then she would stop and say to me, ‘now you do it’. After that I’d wake up.”

Fitzgerald has probably had the most influence on Hays – who studied law at Stellenbosch University (and took a class with Heinz Winckler “whom I remember because he was good-looking even back then”) and hated it. However, it’s Nina Simone who will be paid tribute to at Hays’ show, Just Call Me Nina: The Nina Simone Introspective, at On Broadway this weekend. Hays says: “I love Ella because she shows me what is possible to do with a voice. And she’s such a lady. Now Nina, on the other hand, is f****ing gangsta.

“She’ll tell you exactly how she feels. She’ll be on stage and still choon the people in the audience if they’re not paying attention – I’ve done that. But Nina Simone has also always been about the music and its message, even if she had a lot of attitude. This show will include her and my songs and I’ll talk about how and why they feed into each other.”

The late Simone may not have visited Hays in her sleep, but she is one of the voices that’s acted as a guide for her to live out her dreams.

l See Auriol Hays in Just Call Me Nina: The Nina Simone Introspective at On Broadway on Sunday. Tickets are R70. Book at the box office on 021 424 1194.