Though there are only 12 tracks on this collection, the selections are impeccable: two standards by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington each, plus individual tracks by Lena Horne, Nina Simone, Abbey Lincoln and Shirley Horn. ~ Keith Farley, All Music Guide
Nina Simone's sole U.S. pop hit, "I Loves You, Porgy," was released in 1959; too black for American white audiences, she found more favor abroad. In Britain, for example, she placed five singles in the charts and had six hits; "I Put a Spell on You" charted twice. Back in the States in more recent times, the electro scene began delving ever deeper ...
In appearance, this two-disc anthology would seem to be an exercise in hearse chasing, issued just months after the great singer's death. In reality, no matter what the intention of the record label, this anthology accomplishes what virtually every other attempt failed miserably to do: definitively represent all the stages of Simone's career. ...
The Best of Nina Simone presents 12 tracks taken from the many recordings Simone did for Phillips in the '60s. As is often noted, Simone is a dynamic and powerful vocal interpreter who often brought her social consciousness directly into her artistry. Some of the material on this record would have been considered topical for the period when it was ...
While there's some good music on this 73-minute CD, it's a patchy quilt of songs from the 1950s to the 1980s, reaching as far back as late-'50s sessions from early in her career, and stretching through several subsequent decades, including two songs from a 1985 album and seven songs from her In Concert album thrown in along the way. That's not, ...
Nina Simone has penned unforgettable protest material, covered jazz, folk, rock, and pop with equal flair, and created a body of work that's kept her popularity high. While this title is hardly accurate, since it only covers RCA material from 1967-1972, there's plenty of anthemic fare among The Essential Nina Simone's 16 selections. These include ...
Vocalist, composer and pianist Nina Simone returned from a lengthy self-imposed exile in 1993 with an autobiography and outstanding CD highlighting her still impressive singing and interpretative skills in an intriguing context, surrounded by strings and guitars. While the backdrops were lush and occasionally corny, Simone's deep, penetrating ...
Though it's part of the Pure series, Verve's Pure Jazz almost seems more as part of the Ken Burns Jazz multi-disc series, especially since it was released during that documentary's airing on PBS. Any of the tie-in discs to Ken Burns Jazz were designed to give an overview, either of an artist or an entire jazz style, while Pure Jazz is designed to ...
Little Girl Blue, released in 1957, was Nina Simone's first recording, originally issued on the Bethlehem label. Backed by bassist Jimmy Bond and Albert "Tootie" Heath, it showcases her ballad voice as one of mystery and sensuality and showcases her up-tempo jazz style with authority and an enigmatic down-home feel that is nonetheless elegant. The ...
More than ten years on from the first whisperings of a dance revolution, there are scores of solid producers in the scene, figures with all the talent, historical knowledge, and judgment necessary to rework most any tracks from the Verve archive. Surprisingly, Verve Remixed strays from the label's crossover-heavy '60s and '70s material (the ...
Great Ladies Sing Gershwin samples performances from some of the legendary composer's best interpreters. Consistently engaging throughout, the disc's highlights include Ella Fitzgerald's "Nice Work if You Can Get It," Sarah Vaughan's "Someone to Watch Over Me," Dinah Washington's "Summertime," and Betty Carter's "The Man I Love." ~ Raymond ...
There's a lot more Broadway and a lot more ballads than blues on this, which ranks as one of her weaker mid-'60s albums. Almost half the record features Broadway tunes on the order of Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hammerstein; most of the rest was composed by Bennie Benjamin, author of her first-rate "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," which the Animals ...
George Gershwin: The Ultimate Collection is a nice double-disc set that collects definitive performances of Gershwin standards from Rhapsody in Blue to Funny Face. It's a wildly eclectic collection, containing cuts from Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Audrey Hepburn, Sarah Vaughan, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, and the Boston Pops ...
Nina Simone Sings the Blues, issued in 1967, was her RCA label debut, and was a brave departure from the material she had been recording for Phillips. Indeed, her final album for that label, High Priestess of Soul, featured the singer, pianist, and songwriter fronting a virtual orchestra. Here, Simone is backed by a pair of guitarists (Eric Gale ...
A good and sensible single-disc reissue of two early Simone albums, both recorded in the late '50s and both among her more jazz-oriented outings. The Amazing Nina Simone, a 1959 studio LP, is rather on the pop and standards side of things, with cuts like "It Might as Well Be Spring," "Willow Weep for Me," and "Stompin' at the Savoy," but that's ...
Verve gets a lot of mileage out of its jazz catalog by repackaging a lot of material under loose thematic configurations. After Hours, as you could probably guess from the title, focuses on Simone's jazz ballads, with 16 tracks from her mid-'60s Philips albums. The material is pretty good -- "Wild Is the Wind," "Black is the Color of My True Love ...
Nina Simone recorded for RCA Records between 1967 and 1972. While she was in fine form during those years, she didn't make her best records there, and sounded particularly ill at ease whenever she did pop-rock covers, which was more often than she should. However, these songs are selling points for a certain audience, namely the audience RCA is ...
Nina Simone was not a rock singer per se, and indeed, not readily classified within any popular music style. But she did record quite a few covers of rock, folk-rock, and pop/rock songs during her stint with RCA in the late '60s and early '70s. This thematic compilation has 14 of them (though one stray track, "My Father," was actually recorded for ...
Nina Simone recorded seven albums for the Philips label between 1964 and 1966. It was the period in her career in which her reputation was cemented as a world-class artist, and one in which she gained fame for her contributions to the civil rights movement as well. Despite the fact that she recorded great albums both before and after her years ...
Verve's Finest Hour collection of Nina Simone's work compiles 60 minutes of career highlights, including "Wild Is the Wind," "I Put a Spell on You," "Four Women," "I Loves You, Porgy," and "My Baby Just Cares for Me." Though it's by no means a definitive compilation of Simone's music, it does provide a welcome overview of her Verve years. ~ ...
This album was apparently a bit of a pastiche of leftovers from sessions for Nina Simone's four previous albums on Philips. But you'd never guess from listening; the material is certainly as strong and consistent as it is on her other mid-'60s LPs. As is the case with most of her albums of the time, the selections are almost unnervingly diverse, ...
Most of the music on this CD reissue dates from 1966-67, featuring the unique singer-pianist Nina Simone joined by a funky rhythm section (with Eric Gale and Rudy Stevenson on guitars and organist Ernest Hayes) in addition to Buddy Lucas on tenor and harmonica; a few of the other selections utilize a larger backup group. Simone is the star ...
Little Girl Blue, released in 1957, was Nina Simone's first recording, originally issued on the Bethlehem label. Backed by bassist Jimmy Bond and Albert "Tootie" Heath, it showcases her ballad voice as one of mystery and sensuality, and showcases her up-tempo jazz style with authority and an enigmatic down-home feel that is nonetheless elegant. ...
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
![Great Ladies of Jazz [Rebound]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/e57040kpf39_t.jpg)
![The Best of Nina Simone [PolyGram]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/c500501df05_t.jpg)
![Pure Jazz [Polygram]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/e41258nz9oa_t.jpg)
![Nina Simone Sings the Blues [Expanded Edition]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/h16658er0ap_t.jpg)
![Little Girl Blue [Bonus Tracks]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/h22931ffor2_t.jpg)
![The Very Best of Nina Simone [Sony Jazz]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/i41320jk4y4_t.jpg)
![The Essential Tony Bennett [Columbia/Legacy]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/f39144ywknd_t.jpg)
Portions of content provided by All Music Guide or All Movie Guide. © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide and All Movie Guide are registered Trademarks of All Media Guide, LLC.