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They come across as.well. This CD is definitely worth the purchase price brand new. One of the interesting things about people who don't write their own music (i.e., much of what Nina Simone sang) is to see the other light that one person's song takes on when it is sung by another. unfinished).Nina Simone even covers some bluesy pieces ("Do I Move You.") and some work done by Tina Turner ("Funkier.") with good effect. It's something to which I've returned to listen many times. 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 Taylor's "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.Simone's weakness as a songwriter is exposed on tracks like "Mississippi Goddam." (It's a track that has an interesting arrangement but whose lyrics are very weak.
Nina Simone really could sound like four different, actualized women; that's why nobody has ever done the song better.Likewise with "Mississippi Goddam." The song is done as a "showtune, but the show hasn't been written yet." But with that quivering vibrato, Ms. I'm writing this review on the day of President Obama's inauguration, the day after Martin Luther King Day. This is what Nina Simone fought so hard for. RC
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 Amazon.com 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. For one, her covers on "Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and "I Put a Spell On You" are far superior in the depth of her delivery to disc two's "Here Comes the Sun" and "Just Like a Woman." For two, she sings noticeably flat on disc two (intentionally on "Everyone's Gone to the Moon," unintentionally on "A Single Woman.") That's not to say that disc two is garbage, however; my favorite cut on the whole c.d. However, I must say that disc two doesn't measure up to #1.
Simone's glory days of the late '50's - early '60's, 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. is worth 5 stars, and worth the price, for disc one alone. And I'm misty-eyed about that. Simone conveyed her barely contained rage about the institution known as segregation.This c.d.
Check out how she sings the "Saffronia" part of "Four Women," for example, versus how she sings the "Peaches" part of the same song. I wish she could have seen this day.Disc one takes you back to Ms. She could be strong and strident or, with that fast vibrato in her throat, could convey shame or anger.
the title explain sufficient.Sorry, but my English is very little. No coments.
If this is the first CD you get, you will not be disappointed. Her voice, her style, her passion is unique in all her songs. What more can be said of Nina Simone. She is truly a one of a kind performer.
"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. A CD that shows Simone in all her brilliant moods and at the peak of her powers. The fact that Nina Simone is not a household name, like Sarah Vaughan, is inconceivable. 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. 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. Bessie Smith's "Nobody Knows You When You Are Down and Out," related in message, takes on new life in Simone's hands. 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.
(It is song #14 of Disc One for an Amazon sample). 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).
"Don't 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. Her vocal tribute to Rev.
She's 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. Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," sung sensitively, contains greater anger than Billie's powerful, almost naïve, version.
n Mary WhippleNina Simone at the Village GateNina Simone - Live at Montreux 1976--DVDThe Very Best Of Nina Simone, 1967-1972 : Sugar In My BowlI Put A Spell On You: The Autobiography Of Nina SimoneNina: The Essential Nina Simone "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair," a folk tune, becomes a drama here with Simone totally controlling both the voice and accompaniment.
"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.
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