PopMarket

As unclassifiable as she was forthright, Nina Simone (1933-2003) went her own way;  it was up to her devoted audience to keep pace with her stylistic wanderings.  Defiantly outspoken and willfully eclectic in her music, Simone electrified listeners with artfully intense performances.

Trained as a classical pianist but thwarted in her ambitions, Simone turned to singing out of economic necessity.  The 1950s and 60’s witnessed Simone gaining success with her involving blend of blues, gospel, and jazz, classical, R&B, and popular song.  Her wide-ranging musical nature and smoldering delivery captivated listeners fascinated by her scope and emotional involvement.

Politically radicalized in the early 1960s, Simone took her music in yet another direction.  Now recording songs that addressed the civil rights movement as well as folk and recent pop songs, Simone aligned herself with a contemporary audience.  Her RCA albums were stocked with songs that ran the gamut from “I Wish I Knew What It Was Like to Be Free” by Billy Taylor and “Ain’t Got No (I Got Life)” from the Broadway hit, Hair, to Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne” and Burt Bacharach’s  “The Look of Love.”  It was this ability to endow work from Langston Hughes to the Bee Gees with equal intensity that drew legions of mesmerized fans to her.

Simone’s outspoken nature and confrontational personality may have caused havoc with her career, but, from today’s perspective, her forthrightness can be seen as a model for a new generation of take-no-guff performers.  Simone had something to say, she made sure you heard it, and judging from the myriad artists who cite her as an influence, many did.

• Contains her hits  “ I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”, “I Loves You Porgy”, “I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl”, “Young, Gifted And Black”, “I Ain’t Got No - I Got Life”, “Mississippi Goddam” and more.
• The 20th Century’s most eclectic musician explores Blues, Folk, Pop, Rock, Gospel, Art Songs, Broadway, African, Jazz, Protest Songs, and more in her uniquely individual style.
• Nina’s powerful and moving versions of classics by Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Willie Dixon, The Bee Gees, Gershwin, The Beatles, Jerome Kern, Randy Newman, and more are all here.

Albums included:

1. Nina Simone Sings The Blues (1967)
2. Silk & Soul (1967)
3. ‘Nuff Said (1968)
4. Nina Simone & Piano (1969)
5. To Love Somebody (1969)
6. Black Gold (1970)
7. Here Comes The Sun (1971)
8. Emergency Ward (1972)
9. It Is Finished (1974)