Top 5: Nina Simone

I decided early on that writing exclusively about albums that were released in 2006 wouldn’t do my year in music much justice. For one, 2006 didn’t have the extraordinary releases which 2005 had, although I'm not sure if that's true, or merely a function of my changing perspective. I also simply spent a lot more time looking backwards, exploring older albums and especially individual artists. To justify this totally personal approach to the listmaking, my "Top 25" is going to be a bit different (just at first): I’ll talk about an album by an artist that actually was released in 2006 (as a kind of justification), but mostly as a platform to talk about 5 albums from that artist's history which I grew to obsess over and love as a result of hearing this release. I want to do this twice, and once we reach 15, I’ll start with 2006 albums, because I can make a suitable list at that point. I hope that it’s still interesting to y'all. For today: Nina Simone, born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in 1935 in Tryon, North Carolina.

Forever Young, Gifted and Black: Songs of Freedom and Spirit
Forgive the overly-earnest album title: the songs within marry fiery anger and politics and tender emotion without a drop of sentiment. That quality, along with complex emotions and musical versatility, is what I’ve come to love in Nina Simone’s music as I’ve explored it this year. Young, Gifted and Black, a phrase popularized by Aretha Franklin’s 1972 album, was originally a song by Simone. Musically, the album showcases Simone’s penchant for blues and soul singing, and the breadth of style in her recordings, from jazz to showtunes to gospel to r & b, all balanced atop accomplished, classical piano playing. In the end, she hated being categorized by anything, calling her music “black classical” (she was rejected from attending Juliard, purportedly because of her race). In some ways, it’s a blessing, because her resulting recordings, most of them covers from traditional spirituals to Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne,” are remarkable. She released almost 60 albums in her lifetime and penned over 500 songs (she died in 2003). Here, 5 albums that I most loved, though I’ve just begun. MP3: "Revolution (Parts 1 & 2)"

5. Wild is the Wind / High Priestess of Soul (1967/67)
I think this is a pretty good place to begin with Simone’s music, especially since you can buy it as a double-LP, both from 1966. The albums are full of somewhat boisterous arrangements and characterize a number of styles, mostly due to the fact that it’s made up of six disparate recording sessions. Here is the song Jeff Buckley later covered, “Lilac Wine,” as well as traditional folk songs reappropriated (“Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair”) and spirituals (“Take Me to the Water”) and original selections like the four-part song called “Four Women,” which highlights her gift for spinning unsentimental emotion out of political and racial animosity. One of my favorites is “Break Down and Let it All Out,” where her emerging pop sensibilities shine a little bit. MP3: "Four Women"




4. In Concert / I Put a Spell On You (1964/65)
The first half of this double-LP album (I know I’m kind of cheating again, but they were from very similar periods in her career), a show from New York City, where Simone’s live persona--brash, contradictory, moody, angry, breathy, tender, funny, emotional--really shines through. For subject matter like “Mississippi Goddam,” which was about a church bombing, she chooses light-heartedness, claiming that the song is a show tune, “but the show hasn’t been written for it...yet.” But the scowl on the cover of the album suggests her humor is in irony, and she’s not really joking, not really. The rest of the performance is peppered with bitter moments and shrewd comments under her breath. She lets some joy come through in “Old Jim Crow” about the hopeful end of discrimination, but the song at the end of the concert, “Missisippi Goddamn” became an anthem for young black people fighting oppression. The second LP is Nina Simone at her more personal, opening with the title track “I Put A Spell On You,” one of my favorite of her covers. The album is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying of her albums--it’s certainly one of the most consistent. “Ne Me Quitte Pas” is absolutely gorgeous, an example of her numerous French cover songs (she later moved to France). MP3: "I Put A Spell On You"

3. Great Show of Nina Simone / Live in Paris (1975)
This is a fairly rare recording that I got from a friend, released under a couple different titles in France as above, and once as “Live in Europe” in the US. I was interested in it originally because it’s the source for the famous “Just in Time” recording which is used in Richard Linklater’s film Before Sunset, in the poignant last scene. It’s an excellent quality recording and she’s in a fairly good mood (not typical). It has a few of my favorite songs from her repertoire, including “When I Was a Young Girl,” “Backlash Blues,” (written with Langston Hughes) “See-Line Woman,” and the strangely affecting “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” (made famous by The Animals) during which I’m consistently convinced that being misunderstood, trying and being passionate and foolish and then, in the end, being misunderstood--that would be the greatest tragedy of all. This is just a wonderful recording of some her best originals and covers, and I continue to come back to it. MP3: "Backlash Blues"

2. Sings the Blues (1966)
Sings the Blues might be Nina Simone’s most cohesive, successful studio album, recorded with the same band in the same sessions from start to finish. The blues spectrum from Muddy Waters to Ma Rainey is covered, with Simon’s unique, powerful vocals free to roam over a simple, effective backing band--bass, drums, harmonica, occassional organ, and Simone’s own piano mastery. The result is raw and prurient and a whole lot of fun. It has the feel of a live album but a careful set of players and arrangers cultivating contained energy. The songs all feel like they’re about to burst, but that energy/restraint is a characteristic of the blues. Over all else, Simone’s vocals weave it all together, along with her song choices, to make daring, earthy, potent album. I'd say it's objectively among her enduring and best, certainly as far as a singular style is concerned. MP3: "Buck"



1. To Love Somebody (1969)
By most standards, this is not Nina Simone’s best album, but for various reasons, I’ve put it at #1. The first track, “Suzanne,” is a cover of Leonard Cohen’s song, and I’ve listened to it around 100 times in the last 3 months. It’s gorgeous and heartbreaking and perfect. Leonard Cohen’s original is good, but in Simone’s hands, it becomes celestial and eternal. I couldn’t say why I love this song like I do, but it’s enough to affect me even as I listen to it again and write this, long after I’ve memorized ever moment and know it inside out.
The rest of the album is top-notch, especially the two-part “Revolution” song set. I’ll admit the latter half of the album falls off some, especially the three Dylan covers (she never quite pulled any of those off throughout her career, but these are done well), but the Byrds cover “Turn! Turn! Turn!” is quite good. This isn’t the place to begin listening to her music, and it’s not the best as far as universal objective standards, but for some reason I like it and I don’t know what else to say beyond that. MP3: "Suzanne"