― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 18 June 2006 14:04 (seventeen years ago) link
I've always liked her voice a lot, but I like very unusual voices a lot, especially in women.
― trees (treesessplode), Sunday, 18 June 2006 14:37 (seventeen years ago) link
I do too!
― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 18 June 2006 14:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 18 June 2006 15:54 (seventeen years ago) link
(but you were too easy on that silly NY Times/freakfolk article)
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 18 June 2006 15:56 (seventeen years ago) link
The first time I ever heard the name Nina Simone was in the movie Point of No Return, but that was 1993. The only other thing I can think of was the ending of Before Sunset where Ethan Hawke puts on "Just In Time" (version off The Tomato Collection I believe) in Julie Delpy's apartment and they have a short discussion of her.
― Marmot 4-Tay (marmotwolof), Sunday, 18 June 2006 18:52 (seventeen years ago) link
well... she died a couple of years ago!!!
― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 18 June 2006 18:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 19 June 2006 11:47 (seventeen years ago) link
Just picked this one up in pristine condition at the record store:
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B0001ZXMCM.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
It is stunningly good. Nina sounds utterly exhausted (and mentions that she is during one of her monologues) and world-weary to point of slurring and mumbling her words. She also sounds wasted or just totally out of it. But the music is completely striking and gorgeous. I've been feeling a bit exhausted myself lately so maybe it's just matching my mood, but the point remains.
― matt2, Tuesday, 26 August 2008 02:58 (fifteen years ago) link
'Who knows where the time goes' out from that Black Gold album is one of my favorite Nina Simone performances, she almost bleeds the song out.
― Moka, Tuesday, 26 August 2008 04:02 (fifteen years ago) link
How's this one: Protest Anthology?
― Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, 26 August 2008 04:06 (fifteen years ago) link
I like that Black Gold album, but the recording quality on it is pretty bad (even for a live album), especially with high sounds.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 26 August 2008 08:50 (fifteen years ago) link
So, assuming I haven't heard any Nina Simone before, where do I start? Sings the Blues?
― Mordy, Sunday, 9 May 2010 18:22 (fourteen years ago) link
Tomato Collection. Double CD. Its all live but this is where she is at her most astonishing. Don't know if this is hard to find or anything. I've had it for years and love it to death. I think she might be the only person i know where I prefer her live stuff to her recorded stuff. I'm sure somebody will correct me or provide a better studio alternative.
― Hinklepicker, Monday, 10 May 2010 03:44 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm on a major discovery of hers. I recommend the remaster of Live at the Village Gate. "You'll Never Walk Alone" on there is...indescribable.
Is there a Nina Simone POX thread? I'll have to put a list together.
― john. a resident of chicago., Monday, 10 May 2010 04:44 (fourteen years ago) link
i'm partial to "pastel blues" and "wild is the wind"--two of her philips albums.
― by another name (amateurist), Monday, 10 May 2010 10:27 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gAgP-LG0cQ
if you have never heard this... well, turn off the lights and prepare yourself.
― by another name (amateurist), Monday, 10 May 2010 10:28 (fourteen years ago) link
it's a slow song, but she takes it so. fucking. slow. sort of like jimmy scott. love it.
― by another name (amateurist), Monday, 10 May 2010 10:29 (fourteen years ago) link
^^^^ Seconded. In fact that was how I first heard it (well, the Colpix version of it), in the dark on headphones, and it was just one of those moments where you realise that there's music out there in the world that you need to get into your life.
The one-disc Colpix Years cd is a tremendous introduction to Nina; genius throughout, and not too much of it to be intimidating.
― Officer Pupp, Monday, 10 May 2010 11:40 (fourteen years ago) link
If you buy CDs, this two-fer is a pretty nice start (at least it was for me). Looks like you can get it used for $3:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41BN6NNCJ1L._SL500_AA300_.jpg
― Mark, Monday, 10 May 2010 12:50 (fourteen years ago) link
IMO, comps are not the way to go with Nina. Many of the albums are patchy, but she is the type of artist where the bad/weird choices give insight into what she was about. To appreciate her work as a whole, you have to accept its complexity.
― Mark, Monday, 10 May 2010 12:57 (fourteen years ago) link
the one good thing i can say about her is that she is totally forgotten in the u.s, so i never have to hear her (unless i listen to democracy now or pacifica or something. which i never do.).
Love the self-hating leftism of this.
― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 10 May 2010 13:01 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm slowly working my way through the new biography about her by Nadine Cohodas (who has written about Ches Records and Dinah Washington). Well-researched but it's a bit exhausting reading through one concert review excerpt after another.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375424016?tag=root04c-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0375424016&adid=04YKGG8KX60NG0QQN5F9&
― curmudgeon, Monday, 10 May 2010 13:49 (fourteen years ago) link
Chess
― curmudgeon, Monday, 10 May 2010 13:50 (fourteen years ago) link
Mordy, you also need to listen to "Sinnerman" & her version of Sandy Denny's "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?" if you haven't
― silence is a rhythm too (Turangalila), Monday, 10 May 2010 15:26 (fourteen years ago) link
"Love the self-hating leftism of this."
the only times i have ever heard nina simone on the radio i was listening to either npr or amy goodman's democracy now. i don't listen to npr or amy goodman much at all. thus, it is easy for me to never hear nina simone on the radio. what's self-hating about that?
― scott seward, Monday, 10 May 2010 16:49 (fourteen years ago) link
or, wait, maybe you are calling pacifica and democracy now self-hating. i'm confused! sorry.
― scott seward, Monday, 10 May 2010 16:53 (fourteen years ago) link
Love, love, love Nina.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flsRJ1knNkAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDFiCLNhM8khttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6_BWNzThJYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8ATFsXmX4ghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q7w7gk1JhQ
All of these except "Baltimore" are available on this: http://www.discogs.com/Nina-Simone-Anthology/release/643211
And since I can never hear Ne Me Quitte Pas without hearing Thomas Brinkmann's take on it, listen to that here: http://www.divshare.com/download/11330296-877
― matt2, Monday, 10 May 2010 17:57 (fourteen years ago) link
Another favorite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJtMpa4eHd4
― matt2, Monday, 10 May 2010 19:32 (fourteen years ago) link
Ha, I have finally found out what Scott S. does not like. He listens to metal vocalists and disco vocalists and all kinds of '50s through the present rock and r'n'b vocalists but Nina Simone's voice and Pacifica talk show voices annoy him
― curmudgeon, Monday, 10 May 2010 19:41 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-Dskcd8jdw
― The Reverend, Tuesday, 18 January 2011 02:14 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dntswUJGKDo&feature=related
― The Reverend, Tuesday, 18 January 2011 02:17 (thirteen years ago) link
^^^seriously everybody listen to that shit
― The Reverend, Tuesday, 18 January 2011 02:25 (thirteen years ago) link
Yes, this album is v. good and like nothing else in her discography (that I have heard).
http://images.wikia.com/lyricwiki/images/4/41/Nina_Simone_-_Emergency_Ward.jpg
― Mark, Tuesday, 18 January 2011 02:45 (thirteen years ago) link
working in my office and "Isn't It a Pity" came on and about eight minutes in i was unconsciously tearing up
― slight even by tweet standards (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 30 March 2011 20:31 (thirteen years ago) link
wild is the wind is indisputably her best work!
― uberweiss, Wednesday, 30 March 2011 20:47 (thirteen years ago) link
Sugar In My Bowl a great 2cd compi of her turn of the 70s material. It used to be a constant in the cheap disc section of the local chain cd store, not sure if it was mid price originally. Always struck me that for somebody who was so vocally militant there were a lot of songs by white singer/songwriters from her at the time. One of my favourite songs on there is a Bee Gees cover called In The Morning, still havenm't found original. Just found them doing it live on a set I torrented from Dime.& 22nd Century is great too. As is Consummation
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 30 March 2011 21:44 (thirteen years ago) link
Without question, Nina Simone in Concert from 1964.
Spare jazz ensemble devoid of the fluffy orchestrations that ruin so many of her other recordings.
This is the sweet spot where she had developed her chops, but hadn't yet started riding her own coat-tails.
Set-list includes everything from Gershwin to Kurt Weill to Simone originals.
Vibrant, and at times, unsettling performance in front of a (what I expect was) a coat-and-tie wearing NYC audience.
Nina seems to be hitting the bottle pretty hard on these nights, and while some of it gets a tad sloppy, she really lets it all hang out.
I've listened to just everything in her catalog - nothing compares to in Concert - and it's the only Nina Simone I'll ever need.
― suspecterrain, Thursday, 31 March 2011 09:02 (thirteen years ago) link
I thought I had heard all the great Nina Simone songs by now but this is spectacular:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYcgCiWAv8c
― Pop is superior to all other genres (DL), Thursday, 31 March 2011 09:06 (thirteen years ago) link
22nd Century is awesome. Ws making a vocal jazz compilation...and now I'm just listening to Nina. Can't stop.
Ws gonna revive the 'artist everyone on ILM likes' to include her but I see Scott's comments upthread...actually kinda surprising there aren't more people who dislike her voice, something v rough and aunt-like about it. Not that I'd include myself in that crowd as I like the voice.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 23 March 2012 10:16 (twelve years ago) link
someone already mentioned this upthread but for real DAMN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqdyI570pMo
― fennel cartwright, Sunday, 11 November 2012 11:10 (eleven years ago) link
I'm on such a huge Nina Simone kick right now. The RCA collection has been on constant play at home the past couple of weeks.I was always aware of about 15-20 songs by her, but man what an artist.
― nicky lo-fi, Sunday, 19 October 2014 17:52 (nine years ago) link
I had only heard this as easy listening fodder of the type my parents liked. Nina's version has this classical piano rippling away underneath sustained vibrato notes. Genuinely moving. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0P0Qc2YSQs
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Monday, 20 October 2014 14:57 (nine years ago) link
May have already said this somewhere above but I love a 2cd set called 'Sugar In My Bowl' which covers a lot of material around the turn of the 70s.Odd thing is how many white pop-folk/singer-songwriters such an outspoken black power supporter was covering. But all done very well.Dunno if it's still available, pretty sublime anyway.
― Stevolende, Monday, 20 October 2014 15:14 (nine years ago) link
'Nuff Said! is a really powerful live album recorded just a few days after MLK's assassination. Most of her stuff from that era is pretty amazing, but the context (and a song written expressly about King's death) makes that album stand out for me.
― What Lies Behind The Beehive? (Old Lunch), Monday, 20 October 2014 15:46 (nine years ago) link
i like when she does shlocky show tunes and film title music, like the theme from "sayonara"
― I dunno. (amateurist), Tuesday, 21 October 2014 05:11 (nine years ago) link
I love most of her music but really wish she had more of those 'tribal dance/funky' songs like See-line Woman and Funkier than a mosquito's tweet and less of the sad songs.
― Moka, Tuesday, 21 October 2014 07:09 (nine years ago) link
Might have been because she felt like not enough people danced at her concerts and that she was playing for corpses. That's what you get for playing for rich 60s folks, Nina.
― Moka, Tuesday, 21 October 2014 07:30 (nine years ago) link
I have The Tomato Collection and it is amazing - she sounds haunted, possessed by some kind of strong fuck you spirit and deep sadness as well as a a tough proud dignity but then it seems by all accounts she was actually this: angry, sad or exultant much of the time - so this was an accurate reflection of who she was. She hardly got her dues - just cos she was wild, eccentric and no cookie cutter musician. ALSO have the Montreaux Concert from...1974 on DVD again she is completely singular, furious and compelling. Amazing pounding beautiful piano. Lots of adjectives thrown around here but when I think of her I just feel speechless, inarticulate with amazement at her greatness so all I can do is throw these waffly superlatives out into the heather.
― Hinklepicker, Tuesday, 21 October 2014 08:17 (nine years ago) link
Ether.
― Hinklepicker, Tuesday, 21 October 2014 08:18 (nine years ago) link
with Alfred in general re: her music too - there is a studied, overly formal rigor to everything (except her voice, which is remarkably expressive) that leaves me a little cold. I like some songs here and there but idk
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 27 August 2015 21:33 (eight years ago) link
see i think i like the tension between the formality/rigor you speak of and the deep wells of emotion in her voice. it works for me!
― tylerw, Thursday, 27 August 2015 21:35 (eight years ago) link
did she ever do Compared to What (or any Eugene McDaniels?) seems tailor-made for her
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 27 August 2015 21:37 (eight years ago) link
don't know!weird, there is a different doc coming out? http://www.amazingnina.com/
― tylerw, Thursday, 27 August 2015 21:58 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7awW5nrDHk
This is the ultimate, for me.
The anger and triumph and sadness of it. The little chuckle she does after "And you see me lookin' nice/ With a ribbon in my hair". The way her voice is so harsh and chiding all the way through until the last line, when she hits that heart-breakingly pure tone.
And of course...
THAT'LL LEARRRRN YA!
― Pheeel, Thursday, 27 August 2015 22:32 (eight years ago) link
xp I guess a different doc could conceivably focus more on the music itself than What Happened, Miss Simone? did. The Netflix one was exec produced by her daughter, so her portrait of her was probably always going to be more about the person and less about the musician. I'd definitely watch another one that focuses on her music.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 27 August 2015 23:58 (eight years ago) link
http://www.straight.com/movies/727951/amazing-nina-simone-celebrates-skilled-singer
http://pitchfork.com/news/64247-nina-simone-documentary-director-slams-ugly-and-inaccurate-zoe-saldana-biopic/
I want to see this second Nina S doc, The Amazing Nina Simone
from the review of it: The better-known doc, Liz Garbus’s What Happened, Miss Simone?, made with the involvement of Simone’s estate, had access to her diaries and tapes. The Amazing doc, written, shot, and directed by Jeff L. Lieberman, a Vancouverite now based in New York, is far less polished than that Netflix production, although his rough assemblage, even with its notably bad graphic design, does illuminate a lot of what went right for Miss Simone.
There are many performance and audio clips, including very early stuff and key songs the other effort missed. His straightforward chronology allows fans to see how quickly things happened for Eunice Waymon, a North Carolina piano prodigy who attended Juilliard and fell into jazz almost by accident. Pushed by a club owner to sing to her own accompaniment, she took a new name so her church-preaching mother wouldn’t find out.
Lieberman uses two of the singer’s brothers and Vancouver guitarist Henry Young, among many others, to paint clear pictures of the transformation, while ignoring some obvious questions, like if and how the Waymons reacted when Eunice shot up the charts with her definitive version of “I Loves You, Porgy” in 1958.
The film is light on information about the mental disturbances that gradually consumed her career and private life. It misses her own voice, and while Lieberman’s narration isn’t bad, it lacks an authoritative stamp to match his subject’s magnitude. Still, as with Simone herself, there’s more here to celebrate than regret.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 15 July 2016 16:34 (seven years ago) link
Still haven't checked to see whether this 2nd Simone doc, The Amazing Nina Simoneis available via online sites
― curmudgeon, Monday, 18 July 2016 19:05 (seven years ago) link
I like her version of “Feeling Good” better than the one John Legend did tonight at the Biden inauguration tv event
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 21 January 2021 04:08 (three years ago) link
I mean... it’s pretty much set in stone that her version is the essential version of it.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 21 January 2021 05:11 (three years ago) link
i thought john legend did a great job w itninas is undeniable obv
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 21 January 2021 05:52 (three years ago) link
off-topic but I wish John Legend would record the version of MJ's I Can't Help It that he performed on Master Of None a few years ago
― Ray Cooney as "Crotch" (stevie), Thursday, 21 January 2021 12:06 (three years ago) link
also Nina's versions of Bee Gees songs are definitive for me
― Ray Cooney as "Crotch" (stevie), Thursday, 21 January 2021 12:07 (three years ago) link
I think the only cover/interpretation she doesn't totally nail is "Everyone's Gone To The Moon" - not even she can save that one.
― mahb, Thursday, 21 January 2021 12:23 (three years ago) link
This could also go on 'What can't you find on the internet' but let's try here.
Seeing if anyone knows which live compilation album includes the only song released from her 'Meltdown' performance ('See-Line Woman'). It's referred to in Warren Ellis's book in a conversation he had in 2020 with the guy who had been the sound engineer on the night, and recorded the performance on a DAT through the mixing desk. "I know it's my recording as the bongos are so fucking loud".
― lefal junglist platton (wtev), Monday, 15 January 2024 20:16 (four months ago) link
She was at Meltdown in 1999.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 20:47 (four months ago) link
― lefal junglist platton (wtev), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 21:05 (four months ago) link
This came out in 2000, the back half are live tracks, though no info on if those live tracks are from the 1999 Meltdown (but See Line Woman is one of the live tracks)
― impostor syndrome to the (expletive) max (stevie), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 23:24 (four months ago) link
https://www.discogs.com/release/446459-Nina-Simone-Nina-The-Essential-Nina-Simone
https://www.discogs.com/release/446459-Nina-Simone-Nina-The-Essential-Nina-Simone― impostor syndrome to the (expletive) max (stevie), Tuesday, January 16, 2024 11:24 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
― impostor syndrome to the (expletive) max (stevie), Tuesday, January 16, 2024 11:24 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
thanks stevie! i'll check that one out. according to the book no other tracks from the meltdown performance have been released - the sound engineer said that someone from her entourage came up after the concert and asked for the DAT, that was the only copy. there's no way to be certain that the version of 'see-line woman' referred to is actually from that performance...
i picked this up in oxfam at the weekend which rekindled my interest in finding the particular track. the second CD is also live tracks, with no information on where recorded. the version of 'see-line woman' has some prominent percussion but since i don't know how fucking loud the 'fucking loud' bongos are, i don't know if it's the version i'm looking for (on first listen I think maybe not, doesn't sound raw enough).
https://www.discogs.com/release/5843202-Nina-Simone-The-Essential-Collection
― lefal junglist platton (wtev), Wednesday, 17 January 2024 19:26 (four months ago) link
same version on both those CDs
― lefal junglist platton (wtev), Wednesday, 17 January 2024 20:27 (four months ago) link
Fantastic article about Nina’s childhood in western North Carolinahttps://eu.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2024/03/02/wnc-history-nina-simones-talent-apparent-while-growing-up-in-tryon/72763687007/
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Monday, 4 March 2024 20:27 (two months ago) link