Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone,
was an American singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned a broad range of musical styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.
To make a living, Simone started playing piano at a nightclub in Atlantic City. She changed her name to "Nina Simone" to disguise herself from family members, having chosen to play "the devil's music" or so-called "cocktail piano". She was told in the nightclub that she would have to sing to her own accompaniment, which effectively launched her career as a jazz vocalist.
She went on to record more than 40 albums between 1958 and 1974, making her debut with Little Girl Blue. She had a hit single in the United States in 1958 with "I Loves You, Porgy". Her musical style fused gospel and pop with classical music, in particular Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice.
There are two types of maverick artists: the ones who adopt different styles as a way of switching
costumes, and the ones who take a variety of musical concepts and subvert them wholly to their own ideas, and their own identities. Nina Simone was clearly the latter. Drawing on a wide swath of her catalog, from her first recording session to one of her last, producer Richard Seidel demonstrates how boldly she seized any song that caught her ear, as she marches through Duke Ellington, Kurt Weill, torch songs, folk songs, and the pop and rock hits of her day.
A Julliard-trained pianist who played clubs while harboring an ambition to be a composer, Simone
scored hits with a label that had to cede total creative control before she'd sign on their dotted line. Her performances were spontaneous, her mood impetuous and imperious. It's as hard to boil down the many facets of Simone's career as to romanticize the rough edges. To Be Free succeeds because it doesn't even try.
Disc One is the most varied. A reading of Ellington's "Mood Indigo" from her first studio session
opens the set, and introduces Simone as a smart jazz singer and a pianist with fingers of steel. She's unpredictable from her earliest cuts, with her playing erupting into sudden bursts of forte while she sings each lyric as if she's only just deciding what she thinks of it. Her voice is low and rich but its power, proven on tracks like "I Put a Spell on You", lies in its sudden intensity; and on the live tracks that make up roughly half the set, we hear a nightclub vet's knack for sensing every twitch in the crowd's mood, and a diva's gift for ignoring them at her whim.
Her bloodcurdling performance of Weill's "Pirate Jenny" sears anyone who would ever think of the protagonist as less than a human being. She probably would have sung it the same way no matter what was happening in the Deep South, but it marks one of the earliest times she addressed the civil rights movement.
Disc Two covers the crucial period from 1968-69, starting with a live performance of "Mississippi
Goddam" recorded days after the murder of Dr. King. "I'm not about to be non-violent, honey!" Simone cracks at one point, and she follows the statement with a laugh: Simone's no militant, but her resistance ain't passive, or saintly.
Instead, it's proud. By the late 60s Simone reveals herself as a hell of a singer for a rock band: you can hear it over the fierce "Save Me" and "Revolution," and she sings 1968's "Ain't Got No-I Got Life" with every ounce of her body. And rebel or no, she was also on top of the pop trends, and knew the right artists to cover. The backing vocals on "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and "Poppies" date the performances, but her Bob Dylan covers are often exquisite-- especially "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues", which melts the original's rambling blues into a reverie.
On Disc Three, the tunes get funkier, the grooves run longer, and the theaters are larger. The
rambling but rousing centerpiece of her late-period disc is a 20-minute "My Sweet Lord" that segues in and out of a solo reading of "Today Is a Killer"-- and ends with Simone's cry that the Lord "is a killer." (Even He can't escape her wrath.) But as the disc wears on, the performances start to sound exhausted, until they trail off in the early 70s.
So many strong currents run through To Be Free that it's easy to cling to just one. But right when we
focus on her as a protest singer, we fall into a haunted ballad like "The Other Woman"; and anyone who picks this up thinking they're getting brunch music wasn't counting on all the bongos. Simone is missed, but this isn't a sentimental set, and while it's tempting to juxtapose her eulogy for Dr. King with what happened on election day last month, that's just one part of what she fought for-- and one part of what made her free.
[Disc one does include strong pre-RCA tracks from the first decade of her recording career, including
some of her best-known classics of the time, like "My Baby Just Cares for Me," "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," "See-Line Woman," "I Put a Spell on You," and "Four Women." While the RCA era arguably saw her move too much into pop-oriented production on occasion and too many covers of pop/rock hits, the selections from that era are chosen with intelligence, including a good number of live tracks.
The two post-1973 cuts -- one from 1978 and one from her final proper album, 1993's A Single Woman -- seem like afterthoughts to ensure that most of her career was covered in some way, but that's justifiable considering that the last three decades of her life saw little in the way of noteworthy recordings.
Though there's not much in the way of rarities, the set also does contain half a dozen previously unreleased live tracks of merit; four songs from the hard-to-find album A Very Rare Evening, recorded live in Germany in April 1969; and a couple (a live cover of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" and an alternate version of "Ain't Got No -- I Got Life") that make their first U.S. appearance.
Review by Richie Unterberger]
Nina Simone – To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story
Label: RCA – 88765442452, Legacy – 88765442452
Format: 3 × CD, Compilation, Repress
DVD, DVD-Video, NTSC, Repress
Country: Brazil
Released: 2013
Genre: Jazz, Funk / Soul
Style: Soul-Jazz, Gospel
CD 1. 1957 - 1968
01. Mood Indigo (Bass – Jimmy Bond, Drums – Albert "Tootie" Heath, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Barney Bigard, Duke Ellington, Irving Mills) 4:01
02. I Loves You, Porgy (Bass – Jimmy Bond, Drums – Albert "Tootie" Heath, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) 4:09
03. My Baby Just Cares For Me (Bass – Jimmy Bond, Drums – Albert "Tootie" Heath, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Gus Kahn, Walter Donaldson) 3:36
04. Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out (Producer – Stu Phillips, Written-By – Jimmie Cox) 2:39
05. You Can Have Him (Live) (Bass – Jimmy Bond, Drums – Albert "Tootie" Heath, Producer – Bob Blake, Jack Gold, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Irving Berlin) 5:55
06. Wild Is The Wind (Live) (Bass – Jimmy Bond, Drums – Albert "Tootie" Heath, Producer – Bob Blake, Jack Gold, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Dimitri Tiomkin, Ned Washington) 3:33
07. Trouble In Mind (Live) (Bass – Chris White, Drums – Bobby Hamilton, Guitar – Al Schackman, Producer – Stu Phillips, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Richard Jones) 5:34
08. When Malindy Sings / Swing Low Sweet Chariot (Live) (Bass – Lisle Atkinson, Drums – Montego Joe, Guitar – Al Schackman, Phil Alonzo, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Oscar Brown, Jr., Paul Laurence Dunbar, Traditional) 5:39
09. See-Line Woman (Live) (Bass – Lisle Atkinson, Drums – Bobby Hamilton, Flute – Rudy Stevenson, Producer – Hal Mooney, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – George Bass) 2:36
10. Pirate Jenny (Live) (Bass – Lisle Atkinson, Drums – Bobby Hamilton, Guitar – Rudy Stevenson, Producer – Hal Mooney, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill, Marc Blitzstein) 6:38
11. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (Producer – Hal Mooney Written-By – Bennie Benjamin, Gloria Caldwell, Sol Marcus) 2:44
12. I Put A Spell On You (Arranged By, Conductor, Producer – Hal Mooney, Guitar – Rudy Stevenson, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Jalacy "Screamin' Jay" Hawkins) 2:34
13. Ne Me Quitte Pas (Arranged By, Conductor, Producer – Hal Mooney, Guitar – Rudy Stevenson, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Jacques Brel) 3:35
14. Feeling Good (Arranged By, Conductor, Producer – Hal Mooney, Guitar – Rudy Stevenson, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written - By – Anthony Newley, Leslie Bricusse) 2:54
15. Four Women (Bass – Lisle Atkinson, Drums – Bobby Hamilton, Guitar, Flute – Rudy Stevenson, Producer – Hal Mooney, Written-By, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone) 4:25
16. My Man's Gone Now (Bass – Bob Bushnell, Producer – Danny Davis, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – DuBose Heyward, George Gershwin) 4:17
17. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free (Arranged By, Conductor – Sammy Lowe, Bass – Gene Taylor, Contractor, Alto Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Flute, Flute [G] – Mel Tax, Drums – Bernard Purdie, Guitar – Eric Gale, Piano – Ernie Hayes, Producer – Danny Davis, Tenor Saxophone, Flute [Alto] – Seldon Powell, Trumpet – Ernie Royal, Marky Markowitz, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Billy Taylor, Dick Dallas) 3:08
18. To Love Somebody (Arranged By, Conductor – Jimmy Wisner, Bass – Chuck Rainey, Cello – Maurice Bialkin, Seymour Barab, Drums – Bernard Purdie, Guitar – Eric Gale, Everett Barksdale, Percussion – Alvin Rogers, Producer – Danny Davis, Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Ernie Royal, Marky Markowitz, Trumpet, Trumpet [Bass] – Dominick Gravine, Vibraphone – Gordon Powell, Violin – David Sackson, Irving Spice, Jack Zayde, Joseph Haber, Julius Brand, Lewis Eley, Louis Haber, Michael Comins, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb) 2:38
19. Sunday In Savannah (Live) (Bass – Gene Taylor, Drums – Buck Clarke, Guitar – Rudy Stevenson, Organ – Samuel Waymon, Producer – Joe René, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Hugh MacKay) 3:16
20. Backlash Blues (Live) (Bass – Gene Taylor, Drums – Buck Clarke, Guitar – Rudy Stevenson, Organ – Samuel Waymon, Producer – Joe René, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Langston Hughes, Nina Simone) 3:32
MP3 @ 320 Size: 185 MB
Flac Size: 414 MB
CD 2. 1968 - 1969
01. Mississippi Goddam (Live) (Bass – Gene Taylor, Drums – Buck Clarke, Guitar – Rudy Stevenson, Organ – Samuel Waymon, Producer – Joe René, Written-By, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone) 6:54
02. In The Morning (Bass – Gene Taylor, Drums – Buck Clarke, Guitar – Rudy Stevenson, Organ – Samuel Waymon, Producer – Joe René, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Barry Gibb) 2:42
03. Ain't Got No-I Got Life (Alternate Version) (Arranged By, Conductor – Horace Ott, Bass – Jerry Jemmott, Drums, Timpani – Bernard Purdie, Guitar – Carl Lynch, Eric Gale, Henry Young, Organ – Ernie Hayes, Piano – Paul Griffin, Saxophone – Haywood Henry, Trombone – Garnett Brown, Trumpet – Harold Johnson, Joe Shepley, Wilbur Bascomb, Vocals – Nina Simone, Written-By – Galt MacDermot, Gerome Ragni, James Rado) 2:56
04. Do What You Gotta Do (Arranged By, Conductor – Horace Ott, Bass – Jerry Jemmott, Drums, Timpani – Bernard Purdie, Guitar – Carl Lynch, Eric Gale, Henry Young, Organ – Ernie Hayes, Piano – Paul Griffin, Saxophone – Haywood Henry, Trombone – Garnett Brown, Trumpet – Harold Johnson, Joe Shepley, Wilbur Bascomb, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Jimmy Webb) 3:00
05. Seems I'm Never Tired Loving You (Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Carolyn Franklin) 3:02
06. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (Bass – Gene Perla, Drums, Percussion – Don Alias, Guitar – Al Schackman, Stuart Scharf, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Bob Dylan) 4:49
07. The Times They Are A-Changin' (Bass – Gene Perla, Drums, Timpani – Bernard Purdie, Guitar – Al Schackman, Ernie Calabria, Organ – Weldon Irvine, Percussion – Don Alias, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Bob Dylan) 5:54
08. Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) (Adapted By, Music By – Pete Seeger, Backing Vocals – Doris Willingham, Virdia Crawford, Bass – Gene Perla, Drums – Don Alias, Guitar – Al Schackman, Organ – Weldon Irvine, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone) 3:40
09. The Other Woman (Live) (Bass – Gene Perla, Drums – Don Alias, Guitar – Al Schackman, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Jessie Mae Robinson) 6:00
10. I Think It's Going To Rain Today (Live) (Bass – Gene Perla, Drums – Don Alias, Guitar – Al Schackman, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Randy Newman) 4:45
11. Save Me (Live) (Bass – Gene Perla, Congas, Percussion – Emedin Rivera, Drums – Don Alias, Guitar – Al Schackman, Organ – Weldon Irvine, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Aretha Franklin, Carolyn Franklin, Curtis Ousley) 3:33
12. Revolution (Live) (Backing Vocals – Doris Willingham, Gina Rothchild, Bass – Gene Perla, Congas, Percussion – Emedin Rivera, Drums – Don Alias, Guitar – Al Schackman, Organ – Weldon Irvine, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Nina Simone, Weldon Irvine) 6:21
13. To Be Young, Gifted And Black (Bass – Jerry Jemmott, Drums – Bernard Purdie, Guitar – Eric Gale, Organ – Richard Tee, Organ, Arranged By, Conductor – Weldon Irvine, Percussion – George Devens, Montego Joe, Vibraphone, Percussion – Gordon Powell, Vocals – Barbara Webb, Eileen Gilbert, Hilda Harris, Jerome Graff, Maeretha Stewart, Milt Grayson, Noah Hopkins, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Nina Simone, Weldon Irvine) 2:50
14. Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair (Live) (Arranged By, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Traditional) 3:23
15. Westwind (Live) (Bongos – Don Alias, Congas – Jumma Santos, Vocals – Nina Simone, Written-By – Caiphus Semenya, William Salter) 8:46
16. Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Live) (Organ – Weldon Irvine, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Sandy Denny) 4:58
17. Suzanne (Live) (Bongos – Don Alias, Congas – Jumma Santos, Guitar – Emile Latimer, Tom Smith, Organ – Weldon Irvine, Vocals – Nina Simone, Written-By – Leonard Cohen) 5:03
MP3 @320 Size: 188 MB
Flac Size: 407 MB
CD 3. 1969 - 1993
01. No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed (Live) (Bongos – Don Alias, Congas – Jumma Santos, Guitar – Emile Latimer, Tom Smith, Organ – Weldon Irvine, Vocals – Nina Simone, Written-By – Richie Havens) 4:49
02. Just Like A Woman (Arranged By – Harold Wheeler, Nina Simone, Conductor – Harold Wheeler, Producer – Harold Wheeler, Nat Shapiro, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Bob Dylan) 4:51
03. Here Comes The Sun (Arranged By – Harold Wheeler, Nina Simone, Conductor – Harold Wheeler, Producer – Harold Wheeler, Nat Shapiro, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – George Harrison) 3:34
04. Tanywey (Arranged By – Harold Wheeler, Nina Simone, Producer – Harold Wheeler, Written-By, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone) 3:26
05. Funkier Than A Mosquito's Tweeter (Live) (Bass – Gene Perla, Drums – Don Alias, Guitar – David Spinoza, Organ – Samuel Waymon, Percussion – Essien Nkrumah, Nadi Qamar, Vocals, Producer – Nina Simone, Written-By – Aillene Bullock, Tina Turner) 5:15
06. My Sweet Lord / Today Is A Killer (Live) (Choir – Bethany Baptist Church Junior Choir Of South Jamaica, Lyrics By [Additional] – Nina Simone, Organ, Vocals – Samuel Waymon, Producer – Walter Robinson, Weldon Irvine, Vocals – Lisa Stroud, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – David Nelson, George Harrison, Nina Simone) 18:18
07. Let It Be Me (Live) (Organ, Vocals – Samuel Waymon, Producer – Walter Robinson, Weldon Irvine, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Written-By – Gilbert Bécaud, Mann Curtis, Pierre Delanoë) 5:00
08. Poppies (Arranged By – Weldon Irvine, Lyrics By [Additional], Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Producer – Pete Spargo, Written-By – Jeremy Wind, Lennie Bleacher) 4:45
09. Mr. Bojangles (Live) (Guitar – Al Schackman, Percussion – Nadi Qamar, Vocals, Piano, Producer – Nina Simone, Written-By – Jerry Jeff Walker) 4:51
10. I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl (Live) (Guitar – Al Schackman, Percussion – Nadi Qamar, Written-By, Vocals, Piano, Producer – Nina Simone) 5:46
11. Nina (Live) (Kalimba – Nadi Qamar, Sitar – Al Schackman, Written-By, Vocals, Producer – Nina Simone) 4:14
12. Zungo (Live) (Percussion – Nadi QamarSitar – Al Schackman, Vocals, Producer – Nina Simone, Written-By – Michael Babatunde Olatunji) 4:18
13. Baltimore (Arranged By [Strings], Conductor – David Matthews Arranged By, Vocals, Piano – Nina Simone, Bass – Chuck Israels, Gary King, Homer Mensch, John Beal, Cello – Alan Schulman, Charles McCracken, Jonathan Arramowitz, Drums – Jim Madison, Guitar – Eric Gale, Percussion – Nicky Marrero, Piano, Tambourine, Music By [Musical Director] – Al Schackman Producer – Creed Taylor, Viola – Alfred Brown, Emanuel Vardi, Lamar Alsop, Violin – Barry Finclair, Charles Libove, David Nadien, Harry Glickman, Harry Lookofsky, Herbert Sorkin, Marvin Morgenstern, Max Ellen, Richard Sortomme, Written-By – Randy Newman) 4:38
14. A Single Woman (Arranged By [Orchestra] – Jeremy Lubbock, Bass – John Clayton, Drums – Jeff Hamilton, Piano – Michael Melvoin, Producer – Andre Fischer Vocals – Nina Simone, Written-By – Rod McKuen) 3:33
MP3 @ 320 Size: 185 MB
Flac Size: 438 MB
