Nina Simone - Free-The Nina Simone Story - 3CD+DVD 2008

Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), better known by her stage name Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music. Simone aspired to become a classical pianist while working in a broad range of styles including classical, jazz, blues, soul, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop. Born the sixth child of a preacher's family in North Carolina, Nina's prodigious musical talent prompted her ambition to become the first black concert pianist, but the realities of poverty and racial prejudice forced her to redirect her ambitions. Her musical path changed direction after she was turned down for full scholarship at a prestigious music institute, the Curtis Institute of Philadelphia. She then began playing in a small club in Phildelphia to fund her continuing musical education to become a classical pianist and was required to sing as well. She was approached for a recording by Bethlehem Records, and her rendition of I Loves You Porgy became a smash hit in the United States in 1958. Over the length of her career, Simone recorded more than forty albums, mostly between 1958 and 1974. Her distinctive and original style arose from a fusion of gospel and pop songs with classical music, in particular with influences from her first inspiration, classical composer Bach, and accompanied with her expressive jazz-like singing in her characteristic low tenor. She injected as much of her classical background into her music as possible to give it more depth and quality, as she felt that pop music was inferior to it. Her intuitive grasp on the audience-performer relationship was gained from a unique background of playing piano accompaniment for church revivals and sermons regularly from the early age of six years. After twenty years of performing, she became involved in the civil rights movement and the direction of her life shifted once again. Simone's music was highly influential in the fight for equal rights in the U.S.A. The three CDs contain 51 tracks covering Simone's career from 1957 to 1993, from her beginnings as a classically trained supper club artiste through her period of political awakening into her later, idiosyncratic blend of jazz, blues, pop, and rock. We bear witness to a singer who had no equal. Simone carved phrases with that smoky tenor, a natural instrument so regal that her whisper packed more power than the caterwauling of lessers who compensate with overkill. She squeezed audiences with a mysterious intensity. The fourth disc is a DVD containing a documentary film with live concert footage that was completed in 1970 but never released until this set. Disc: 1 1. Mood Indigo 2. I Loves You, Porgy 3. My Baby Just Cares For Me 4. Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out 5. You Can Have Him (Live) 6. Wild Is The Wind (Live) 7. Trouble In Mind (Live) 8. When Malindy Sings-Swing Low Sweet Chariot (Live) 9. See-Line Woman 10. Pirate Jenny (Live) 11. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood 12. I Put A Spell On You 13. Ne Me Quitte Pas 14. Feeling Good 15. Four Women 16. My Man's Gone Now 17. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free 18. To Love Somebody 19. Sunday In Savannah (Live) 20. Backlash Blues (Live) Disc: 2 1. Mississippi Goddam (Live) 2. In The Morning 3. Ain't Got No - I Got Life 4. Do What You Gotta Do 5. Seems I'm Never Tired Loving You 6. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues 7. The Times They Are A - Changin' 8. Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) 9. The Other Woman (Live) 10. I Think It's Going To Rain Today (Live) 11. Save Me (Live) 12. Revolution (Live) 13. To Be Young, Gifted And Black 14. Black Is The Color Of My True Loves Hair (Live) 15. Westwind (Live) 16. Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Live) 17. Suzanne (Live) Disc: 3 1. No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed (Live) 2. Just Like A Woman 3. Here Comes The Sun 4. Tanywey 5. Funkier Than A Mosquito's Tweeter (Live) 6. My Sweet Lord-Today Is A Killer (Live) 7. Let It Be Me (Live) 8. Poppies 9. Mr. Bojangles (Live) 10. I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl (Live) 11. Nina (Live) 12. Zungo (Live) 13. Baltimore 14. A Single Woman Disc: 4 1. Ain't Got No - I Got Life 2. Pirate Jenny 3. Don't You Pay Them No Mind 4. Milestones 5. Go To Hell 6. Backlash Blues 7. Percussion-Drums-Clapping-Dancing 8. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free 9. Precious Lord

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 barber9 (2011-05-29)

The correct name of this CD-set is:
Nina Simone - To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story