Jazz

Verve Jazz Masters 17 Nina Simone (1994) [Jazz][mp3 320][h33t][schon55]

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Verve Jazz Masters 17 - Nina Simone
Audio CD: April 19, 1994
Original Release Date: April 19, 1994
Format: Original recording remastered
Label: Polygram Records
Bitrate: 320 kbps

Nina Simone's inclusion in Verve's Jazz Masters series is a bit suspect; there was a lot of jazz in Simone, true, but wasn't there quite a bit of pop and soul as well, not to mention some blues? Anyway, this is an excellent survey of her mid-'60s work, with 16 tracks spanning 1964 to 1966 that find Simone at her most versatile and assured. Quite a range is encompassed here: traditional folk ( "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair" ), R&B (her jazzy rendition of "I Put a Spell on You" ), Jacques Brel ( "Ne Me Quitte Pas" ), Billie Holiday ( "Strange Fruit" ), the Gershwins ( "I Loves You, Porgy" ), Rodgers & Hart ( "Little Girl Blue" ), and modern jazz (Nat Adderley's "Work Song" ). Other highlights are the mesmerizing "See Line Woman" and the original version of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," which was a hit for the Animals shortly afterwards. On the two original compositions, "Four Women" and "Mississippi Goddam," Simone confronts racism in a head-on fashion rare for the time. Discographical details: the version of "Little Girl Blue" is a mono alternate take, and the recording of "My Baby Just Cares for Me" is not from the mid-'60s, but a 1987 live album. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

Nina Simone, born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, of North Carolina has provided many decades of heartfelt and defiant music bathed in a jumbled blend of classical, jazz, and blues.
This is the first Nina Simone CD I have purchased and I am glad that I chose this CD as an introduction.

I have listened to a variety of Jazz female vocalists/musicians and Nina is vibrant, headstrong, poignant, and intelligent.

Each song is caked with significance. It is an album that makes all emotions swell like a river engorged.

Track Review:

1. Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair
Review: Her voice is low and haunting like the fog that covers a dewy morning. There is a melancholy lust that weaves the tale of remembered and lost love. You really feel the loss and love.

2. I Put A Spell On You
Review: This could never be confused for the DJ Sonique dance anthem. Simone is firey, full of a growling headiness of desire in expressing her love but wantonness to control a lover that wants no part in the affairs of her heart.

3. Love Me or Leave Me
Review: A beautiful and saucy mix of Jazz, Pop, and Classical elements. You really get to hear Nina's passionate piano skills. Bach never seemed so playful and wily. With the addition of Nina's frim fram lusty reminders, she really tells it like it is - example, "there'll be nobody unless that somebody is you."

4. Little Girl Blue
Review: The song starts off with Simone using "Good King Wenceslas" as a counter to the precision jazzy background., which is stark and refreshing. "Good King Wenceslas" expresses the spirit of youth and the jazz lays the depth of experience. Simone plays a tug of war between reminiscing and a quiet sadness brought by a rainy day.

5. My Baby Just Cares For Me
Review: Uptempo and irreverent, Nina states the facts and she shows her sassiness on this track. She's confident and the music certainly reflects it.

6. I Loves You Porgy
Review: A signature stamp reflecting the versatility that is Miss Simone. A smoky and sentimental love song, there is an earnest plea to be a woman wrapped in love. A longing to be held by a solid manifestation of her love.

7. Work Song
Review: This song reflects the hardship on the plight of the black laborer during her era. This song is an earnest tale of how poverty and poor treatment can lay some rough stones for the path of life.

8. Ne Me Quitte Pas
Review: I think the linear notes really state the meaning of this piece more than I could. "Singing in a tired, cracked (not so cracked IMHO) voice, she makes the pain of clutching on to the last threads of love seem tangibly real."

9. Wild Is The Wind
Review: Sultry and sweetly painful. As the wind blows, you see a love unraveling; touching briefly but only to be carried away serenely as Autumn carries leaves miles high into the sky. Nina's voice reminds me of another singer who happened to be the frontwoman of a 90s group named October Project.

10. See-Line Woman
Review: A song whose atmosphere lifts your spirits and embraces you in an energetic Caribbean-African ocean dance. The song features flute, percussion, hand clapping, and pulsating chant. Simone sings of a mysterious woman, a siren of the sea who can "make a man lose his head."

11. Strange Fruit
Review: A cover of Billie Holliday's signature tune. I honestly have never heard this song but have only heard of it through reading. When I listened to this song, I broke down in tears. The pain I felt in my heart clamped down on my soul and enraged me. The song leaves you with more than an image but your senses are attacked. I have never in my young life have been shaken so hard to tears by a song. This song is eloquent and engaging.

12. Pirate Jenny
Review: "A tale of humiliation and murderous revenge" as stated by the linear notes. It is a haunting song. The piano mimics the whole affair. Nina's voice is vibrating tempestuous and quite frightening. This is a song of defiance and action.

13. Four Women
Review: A song that seesaws and makes you want to walk. Nina Simone sings of four black women of different skin tones but share a common plight. It definitely reflects the face of racism within a same race. Nina sums up that even though differences may be apparent, all African American women of all tones have shared many of the same experiences.

14. Mississippi Goddamn
Review: The song has a show tune quality but there is an ever-present rage and heartbreak. She talks about equality of African Americans and speaks of the indignities suffered by tragic assassinations, murders, and slow change. This song is a very scathing accusation of American politics and values.

15. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Review: A very scorching and tender reflection of wanting some acceptance and love.

16. I Hold No Grudge
Review: A bitter anthem between the relationship Simone and America shares. Simone no longer lives in the US but in Europe. As the linear notes explain "In Europe, Simone says, she has finally found peace."

I hope this review has been somewhat helpful. I really conclude that Simone is a worldly treasure. Experience her today, you won't regret it. ~ L. L. Shipp

Verve Jazz Masters 17 - Nina Simone
01 Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair 3:29
02 I Put a Spell on You 2:36
03 Love Me or Leave Me 4:07
04 Little Girl Blue Mono Alternate Take 4:20
05 My Baby Just Cares for Me 3:04
06 I Loves You, Porgy 2:33
07 Work Song 3:08
08 Ne Me Quitte Pas 3:38
09 Wild Is the Wind 7:00
10 See Line Women 2:38
11 Strange Fruit 3:31
12 Pirate Jenny 6:41
13 Four Women 4:26
14 Mississippi Goddam 4:55
15 Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood 2:46
16 I Hold No Grudge 2:19

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