Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Here are five recordings to serve as an introduction to an artist who brings to mind the writer Andre Gide's quote-'Please do not understand me too quickly':Ĭlose overlay Buy Featured Music Song See-Line Woman Album The Essential Nina Simone Artist Nina Simone Label BMG Released 2011 Her rendition of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' 'I Put a Spell on You,' which became one of her signature songs, could serve as a testament to the mesmerizing effect she tended to create on-stage. She was also a dynamic, visually striking and unpredictable performer who, much like Bob Dylan and Miles Davis, kept audiences on their toes and was unafraid to confront unruly fans. Her wide-reaching repertoire, incorporating jazz, blues, folk, pop, show tunes, gospel, and R&B (as well as occasional flourishes drawn from her classical training) served as a precedent for modern singers such as Cassandra Wilson who have expanded the boundaries of the jazz-vocal canon. She could summon a deeply nuanced array of emotions, from explosive swells of anger and passion to a melancholic purr of heartbreak. Though her singing range was limited, she had a sultry sadness and a seductive quality that was spiritual as well as sensual. After being turned down by Philadelphia's prestigious Curtis Institute (a rejection that Simone believed was racially motivated), she began to play in bars, adding vocals to her act at the behest of a club owner. Her prodigious talent was cultivated early on, and she grew up practicing to become a classical pianist, even spending a summer at the Julliard School in New York City. Sometimes referred to as 'the civil rights diva' and 'the High Priestess of Soul,' Simone was born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, N.C. In a time when issues of race and gender are reverberating with a newfound volatility reminiscent of the 1960s - the decade in which Simone forged her reputation as a politically provocative entertainer - 'Nina's' concerts and recordings feel like urgent bulletins from a brooding heart and a troubled land.

The pianist and singer Nina Simone, subject of the new Netflix documentary What Happened, Miss Simone?, a tribute album titled Nina Revisited, and a forthcoming biopic called simply Nina, seems to be ascending to that place of pop-culture reverence. Music Interviews New Documentary Finds Nina Simone 'In Between The Black And White Keys'

Best nina simone lp album