Anthology - Nina Simone

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by: Thmoas Green (SLO Cal)
on: Saturday, 14-August-2010

when i want a good night s sleep or a goo album to show a girl, i use nina

by: Lemas Mitchell (Chengdu, Sichuan (China))
on: Thursday, 22-January-2009

One of the interesting things about people who dont write their own music (i.e., much of what Nina Simone sang) is to see the other light that one persons song takes on when it is sung by another. Case in point: Trouble in Mind is by Bob Dylan (who is one of the most annoying/ overrated performers of all time) is something that sounds completely different (and listenable) when sung by Simone. Another example is Billy Taylors I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free. Taylor wrote this song as a jazz piece, but Simone took it and turned it into a vocal piece-- and she did a wonderful job therewith.

Simones weakness as a songwriter is exposed on tracks like Mississippi Goddam. (Its a track that has an interesting arrangement but whose lyrics are very weak. They come across as.........well..... unfinished.)

Nina Simone even covers some bluesy pieces (Do I Move You?) and some work done by Tina Turner (Funkier......) with good effect.

This CD is definitely worth the purchase price brand new. Its something to which Ive returned to listen many times.

by: Rick Cornell (Reno, Nv USA)
on: Wednesday, 21-January-2009

Im writing this review on the day of President Obamas inauguration, the day after Martin Luther King Day. And Im misty-eyed about that. This is what Nina Simone fought so hard for. I wish she could have seen this day.

Disc one takes you back to Ms. Simones glory days of the late 50s - early 60s, when she was a civil rights pioneer and showed an extraordinary amount of courage in doing songs like Mississippi Goddam. It also displays her voice as a remarkable talent. She could be strong and strident or, with that fast vibrato in her throat, could convey shame or anger. Check out how she sings the Saffronia part of Four Women, for example, versus how she sings the Peaches part of the same song. Nina Simone really could sound like four different, actualized women; thats why nobody has ever done the song better.

Likewise with Mississippi Goddam. The song is done as a showtune, but the show hasnt been written yet. But with that quivering vibrato, Ms. Simone conveyed her barely contained rage about the institution known as segregation.

This c.d. is worth 5 stars, and worth the price, for disc one alone. However, I must say that disc two doesnt measure up to #1. For one, her covers on Please Dont Let Me Be Misunderstood and I Put a Spell On You are far superior in the depth of her delivery to disc twos Here Comes the Sun and Just Like a Woman. For two, she sings noticeably flat on disc two (intentionally on Everyones Gone to the Moon, unintentionally on A Single Woman.) Thats not to say that disc two is garbage, however; my favorite cut on the whole c.d. is track 11 of disc two, the shimmering, quiet reflection Who Knows Where the Time Goes. Disc two also has To Be Young, Gifted and Black, essential Nina Simone music.

My thanks to my friend and top 20 your site critic, Mary Whipple, for bringing my attention to this remarkable recording. It will make you sit up and pay attention, even on days other than MLK Day and Obama Inauguration Day! RC

by: Jaime Bertral Gosch (Spain)
on: Friday, 12-December-2008

No coments... the title explain sufficient...

Sorry, but my English is very little...

by: E. Rodriguez (Coral Gables, FL USA)
on: Saturday, 1-November-2008

What more can be said of Nina Simone? She is truly a one of a kind performer. Her voice, her style, her passion is unique in all her songs. If this is the first CD you get, you will not be disappointed.

by: Mary Whipple (New England)
on: Thursday, 10-July-2008

The fact that Nina Simone is not a household name, like Sarah Vaughan, is inconceivable. Shes a brilliant musician--terrific singer, Juilliard-trained classical pianist who accompanies herself no matter what the genre is, and composer, arranger, and consummate actress with a song. On this anthology of thirty-one of her best songs, she is at her peak, doing it all with panache and all but hanging her soul out to dry.

In I Loves You, Porgy, one of the many favorites on this CD, Simone performs the definitive version of this song, keeping it simple with a simple piano, often singing almost a capella, and often in a whisper, creating an honest and very dramatic mood. Black is the Color of My True Loves Hair, a folk tune, becomes a drama here with Simone totally controlling both the voice and accompaniment. Dont Let Me Be Misunderstood, a passionate original song, is especially poignant and soulful, since we now know she was bipolar (and to some extent self-destructive) for her entire career, singing here about how her intentions are good though she often takes things out on others. Bessie Smiths Nobody Knows You When You Are Down and Out, related in message, takes on new life in Simones hands. I Want a Little Sugar in my Bowl, is an impassioned and unabashedly sexual plea for love.

A number of songs here are from the beginning of the civil rights protest movement in the early sixties, a time of great danger for activist performers. Her own song Mississippi Goddam, which also references Tennessee and Alabama, is one of the first such songs, with Four Women (a song study of women of varying complexions) and their lives depicted vibrantly. I Wish I Knew How It Felt to be Free, is sung like a revival hymn while Revolution, is a rousing, hand-clapping inspirational tune. Billie Holidays Strange Fruit, sung sensitively, contains greater anger than Billies powerful, almost naïve, version. Her vocal tribute to Rev. Martin Luther King, Why (The King of Love is Dead), a quiet tribute to the man, asks the question Will the murders never cease?


For me the highlight of the CD is Sinnerman, ten minutes of powerful, rock `em - sock `em, hand-clapping, folk revival music, a version you must hear to believe (and which you will never forget)! (It is song #14 of Disc One for an your site sample.) Though the CD also features torch songs, blues, soul, gospel, and pop, Simone is primarily a jazz singer extraordinaire, one of the most passionate of the era--but one who can do everything else, too. A CD that shows Simone in all her brilliant moods and at the peak of her powers. n Mary Whipple

Nina Simone at the Village Gate
Nina Simone - Live at Montreux 1976--DVD
The Very Best Of Nina Simone, 1967-1972 : Sugar In My Bowl
I Put A Spell On You: The Autobiography Of Nina Simone
Nina: The Essential Nina Simone