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: /____\ : Nina Simone: The Universal Masters Collection
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:..:... Supplier: SER 2004 Release Date: 02/13/2004 ...:..:
: : Ripper: SER 2004 Street Date: 00/00/2003 :..:...
...:..: Genre: Jazz Label: Universal Music : :
: : Tracks: 15 Tracks Quality: VBR/APS/44,1kHz ...:..:
: : Year: 2003 Channels: Joint Stereo : :
:..:... Source: CD Size: 84,9 MB :..:...
: : Language: English Rating: 70% of 100% : :
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Of all the major singers of the late 20th century, Nina Simone was one
of the hardest to classify. She recorded extensively in the soul,
jazz, and pop idioms, often over the course of the same album; she was
also comfortable with blues, gospel, and Broadway. It's perhaps most
accurate to label her as a "soul" singer in terms of emotion, rather
than form. Like, say, Aretha Franklin, or Dusty Springfield, Simone
was an eclectic who brought soulful qualities to whatever material she
interpreted. These qualities were among her strongest virtues;
paradoxically, they also may have kept her from attaining a truly mass
audience. The same could be said of her stage persona; admired for her
forthright honesty and individualism, she was also known for feisty
feuding with audiences and promoters alike.
If Simone had a chip on her shoulder, it probably arose from the
formidable obstacles she had to overcome to establish herself as a
popular singer. Raised in a family of eight children, she originally
harbored hopes of becoming a classical pianist, studying at New York's
prestigious Juilliard School of Music -- a rare position for an
African-American woman in the 1950s. Needing to support herself while
she studied, she generated income by working as an accompanist and
giving piano lessons. Auditioning for a job as a pianist in an
Atlantic City nightclub, she was told she had the spot if she would
sing as well as play. Almost by accident, she began to carve a
reputation as a singer of secular material, though her skills at the
piano would serve her well throughout her career.
In the late '50s, Simone began recording for the small Bethlehem label
(a subsidiary of the vastly important early R&B/rock & roll King
label). In 1959, her version of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy"
gave her a Top 20 hit -- which would, amazingly, prove to be the only
Top 40 entry of her career. Nina wouldn't need hit singles for
survival, however, establishing herself not with the rock & roll/R&B
crowd, but with the adult/nightclub/album market. In the early '60s,
she recorded no less than nine albums for the Candix label, about half
of them live. These unveiled her as a performer of nearly unsurpassed
eclecticism, encompassing everything from Ellingtonian jazz and
Israeli folk songs to spirituals and movie themes.
Simone's best recorded work was issued on Philips during the mid-'60s.
Here, as on Candix, she was arguably over-exposed, issuing seven
albums within a three-year period. These records can be breathtakingly
erratic, moving from warm ballad interpretations of Jacques Brel and
Billie Holiday and instrumental piano workouts to brassy pop and angry
political statements in a heartbeat. There's a great deal of fine
music to be found on these, however. Simone's moody-yet-elegant vocals
were like no one else's, presenting a fiercely independent soul who
harbored enormous (if somewhat hard-bitten) tenderness.
Like many African-American entertainers of the mid-'60s, Simone was
deeply affected by the Civil Rights Movement and burgeoning Black
Pride. Some (though by no means most) of her best material from this
time addressed these concerns in a fashion more forthright than almost
any other singer. "Old Jim Crow" and, more particularly, the classic
"Mississippi Goddam" were especially notable self-penned efforts in
this vein, making one wish that Nina had written more of her own
material instead of turning to outside sources for most of her
repertoire.
Not that this repertoire wasn't well-chosen. Several of her covers
from the mid-'60s, indeed, were classics: her revision of Weill
-Brecht's "Pirate Jenny" to reflect the bitter elements of African
-American experience, for instance, or her mournful interpretation of
Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas." Other highlights were her versions of
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," covered by the Animals for a rock
hit; "I Put a Spell on You," which influenced the vocal line on the
Beatles' "Michelle"; and the buzzing, jazzy "See Line Woman."
Simone was not as well-served by her tenure with RCA in the late '60s
and early '70s, another prolific period which saw the release of nine
albums. These explored a less eclectic range, with a considerably
heavier pop-soul base to both the material and arrangements. One bona
fide classic did come out of this period: "Young, Gifted & Black,"
written by Simone and Weldon Irvine Jr., would be successfully covered
by both Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway. She did have a couple of
Top Five British hits in the late '60s with "Ain't Got No" (from the
musical Hair) and a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody," neither
of which rank among her career highlights.
Simone fell on turbulent times in the 1970s, divorcing her
husband/manager Andy Stroud, encountering serious financial problems,
and becoming something of a nomad, settling at various points in
Switzerland, Liberia, Barbados, France, and Britain. After leaving
RCA, she recorded rarely, although she did make the critically well
-received Baltimore in 1978 for the small CTI label. She had an
unpredictable resurgence in 1987, when an early track, "My Baby Just
Cares for Me," became a big British hit after being used in a Chanel
perfume television commercial. In 1993, her record A Single Woman
marked her return to an American major label, and her profile was also
boosted when several of her songs were featured in the film Point of
No Return. She published her biography, I Put a Spell on You, in 1991,
but grew increasingly frail throughout the late '90s and had to be
helped on to the stage during a 2001 Carnegie Hall performance. Nina
Simone died on April 21, 2003 at her home in Carry-le-Rouet, France,
where she had been spending much of her retirement.
http://ninasimone.com/
Tracks:
01. I Loves You Porgy (Live) (2:32)
02. Sinnerman (10:21)
03. Mississippi Goddam (Live) (4:54)
04. I Put A Spell On You (2:36)
05. Feeling Good (2:56)
06. Gimme Some (3:02)
07. Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out (2:41)
08. Strange fruit (3:32)
09. Wild Is The Wind (6:59)
10. Break Down And Let It All Out (2:40)
11. Lilac Wine (4:17)
12. Take me To The Water (2:54)
13. Brown Eyed Handsome Man (2:05)
14. I Love My Baby (4:08)
15. Don't Smoke In Bed (Live) (5:26)
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