Nina Simone

Nina Simone – Nina Simone And Her Friends (2021 – Stereo Remaster) (1959/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 37:44 minutes | 429 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BMG Rights Management (US) LLC

An essential collection for Simone completists, containing four songs left over from her career-launching debut album “Little Girl Blue”. This album was released in 1959 without Simone’s knowledge after she left Bethlehem Records. Reappearing here from the debut is Simone’s only charting single “I Loves You, Porgy”, a Billboard Top 20 hit. Simone shares time on this album equally with “her friends” Chris Connor and Carmen McRae who each contribute four songs.

(more…)

Nina Simone – Nina Simone And Her Friends (Remastered 2013) (1959/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 35:35 minutes | 744 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bethlehem Records

Grammy Hall of Fame Award for “I Loves You, Porgy” – 2000

“She could belt barroom blues, croon cabaret and explore jazz – sometimes all on a single record.”
-Rolling Stone

An essential collection for Simone completists, containing four songs left over from her career-launching debut album Little Girl Blue. This album was released in 1959 without Simone’s knowledge after she left Bethlehem Records. Reappearing here from the debut is Simone’s only charting single “I Loves You, Porgy,” a Billboard Top 20 hit. Simone shares time on this album equally with “her friends” Chris Connor and Carmen McRae who each contribute four songs.

(more…)

Nina Simone – Little Girl Blue (2021 – Stereo Remaster) (1959/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 45:53 minutes | 492 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BMG Rights Management (US) LLC

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 album also introduced a fine jazz pianist. Simone was a solid improviser who never strayed far from the blues. Check the opener, her reading of Duke Ellington’s “Mood Indigo,” which finger-pops and swings while keeping the phrasing deep-blue. It is contrasted immediately with one of the – if not the – definitive reads of Willard Robison’s steamy leave-your-lover ballad “Don’t Smoke in Bed.” The title track, written by Rodgers & Hart, features “Good King Wenceslas” as a classical prelude to one of the most beautiful pop ballads ever written. It is followed immediately by the funky swing in “Love Me or Leave Me” with a smoking little piano solo in the bridge where Bachmeets Horace Silver and Bobby Timmons.

(more…)

Nina Simone – Little Girl Blue (1958/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 44:53 minutes | 902 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bethlehem Records

Little Girl Blue is an artistic statement by jazz virtuoso Nina Simone that reinvents a wide variety of compositions. Simone’s combination of classical training, smoky-alto vocal delivery and the influence of modern jazz make her a novel and inspiring jazz singer and instrumentalist.

(more…)

Nina Simone – In Concert (1964/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 35:55 minutes | 1,48 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Philips

This is probably the most personal album that Simone issued during her stay on Philips in the mid-’60s. On most of her studio sessions, she worked with orchestration that either enhanced her vocals tastefully or smothered her, and she tackled an astonishingly wide range of material that, while admirably eclectic, made for uneven listening. Here, the singer and pianist is backed by a spare, jazzy quartet, and some of the songs rank among her most socially conscious declarations of African-American pride: “Old Jim Crow,” “Pirate Jenny,” “Go Limp,” and, especially, “Mississippi Goddam” were some of the most forthright musical reflections of the Civil Rights movement to be found at the time. In a more traditional vein, she also reprises her hit “I Loves You, Porgy” and the jazz ballad “Don’t Smoke in Bed.”

(more…)

Nina Simone – I Put A Spell On You (1965/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 34:23 minutes | 1,49 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Philips

One of Nina Simone’s classics from her days at Philips, this 1965 album includes three songs that have come to be closely identified with her: Ne me quitte pas by Jacques Brel, Feeling Good and the title track, a cover of the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins song, which became a successful R&B single for her. In fact Simone was so closely associated with the song she chose to use the same title for her 1990 autobiography.

(more…)

Nina Simone – Forbidden Fruit (1961/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 37:53 minutes | 379 MB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Forbidden Fruit is an album by the jazz singer/pianist/songwriter Nina Simone. It was her second studio album for Colpix. The rhythm section accompanying her is the same trio as on both live albums before and after this release.

(more…)

Nina Simone – Fodder On My Wings (1982/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 44:49 minutes | 945 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Verve

Recorded in 1982, after moving to Paris, Fodder On My Wings was one of Nina Simone’s favorite and most obscure albums. Released under a small French label and only sporadically available since then, this is the original album version making a long overdue appearance. Expanded with three bonus tracks. Fodder On My Wings is an essential Simone album, which came at a time when Simone was rejuvenated by her surroundings and by the African musicians she met in her newly adopted France.

(more…)

Nina Simone – Broadway – Blues – Ballads (1964/2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 37:03 minutes | 1,51 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Verve Reissues

Multi-GRAMMY nominated vocalist Nina Simone broadened her musical horizon with the release of Broadway – Blues – Ballads. Appealing to the mainstream market, Simone incorporated a full orchestra in the recording studio. Illuminated with her pristine musicianship and emotional depth, the diverse recording features lesser-known standards by Porter, Rodgers and Hart. Also included are two-now classics associated with Simone, “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” and “See-Line Woman.”.

(more…)

Nina Simone – Feeling Good: Her Greatest Hits And Remixes (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:47:13 minutes | 1,24 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Verve

The new album gathers the most iconic songs recorded throughout her career and includes 7 remixes by some of the hottest, in-demand DJ’s worldwide. The first single from the set is a remix by English DJ/producer Joel Corry (Charli XCX, Ed Sheeran) of the timeless classic “Feeling Good”. The album includes seminal songs such as Mississippi Goddam, Strange Fruit, I Loves You Porgy, I Put A Spell On You and Nina Simone’s timeless version of “Feeling Good.”
(more…)

Nina Simone – Fabulous Original Singles 1959-62 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:11:46 minutes | 596 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Nina Simone (bürgerlich Eunice Kathleen Waymon; * 21. Februar 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina, USA; † 21. April 2003 in Carry-le-Rouet, Frankreich) war eine US-amerikanische Jazz- und Bluessängerin, Pianistin, Songschreiberin und Bürgerrechtsaktivistin.
(more…)

Nina Simone – NINA SIMONE INTEGRAL 1957- 1962 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 04:51:00 minutes | 1,49 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Diggers Factory

Nina Simone was the sixth of eight children. Her mother was a Methodist preacher, and her father worked as an entertainer and hairdresser and in a dry cleaning business.She began playing the piano at the age of three or four. The first song she learned was God Be With You, Till We Meet Again. She showed talent on the piano and performed at her local church.

She made her concert debut, a classical recital, at the age of 12. Simone later recounted that her parents, who had been seated in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the auditorium to make room for white people. She said she refused to play until her parents were brought back to the front, and that incident contributed to her later involvement in the civil rights movement. Simone’s music teacher helped establish a special fund to pay for her education, then a local fund was established to support her continued education. With the help of this scholarship, she was able to attend Allen High School for Girls in Asheville, North Carolina.

After studying at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City, she planned to complete her education in Philadelphia at the Curtis Institute of Music, but was not admitted. Simone held that she was not admitted for racial reasons. An accusation denied by Curtis Institute staff, since Curtis had long admitted black students. The year Simone applied, only three of 72 applicants were accepted in piano at all. In 2003, just days before her death, the Institute awarded her an honorary degree.

(more…)

Nina Simone – Great Women Of Song: Nina Simone (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:06 minutes | 957 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Verve

Nina Simone (English Nina Simone, real name Eunice Kathleen Waymon, English Eunice Kathleen Waymon, February 21, 1933 — April 21, 2003) was an American singer, pianist, composer, arranger. She adhered to the jazz tradition, but used a variety of performed material, combined jazz, soul, pop, gospel and blues, recorded songs with a large orchestra.

(more…)

Nina Simone – Sinnerman (1965/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 36:51 minutes | 439 MB | Genre: Jazz, Lounge
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © STARS LEGACY

“Sinnerman” is an American traditional spiritual song that has been recorded by a number of performers. The song dates to the turn of the 20th century but most modern recorded versions derive from 1959 changes and additions codified by the folk music group the Weavers. The Weavers’ performance of the song appears on their compilation albums Gospel and Reunion at Carnegie Hall Part 2.

(more…)

Nina Simone – High Priestess Of Soul (1967/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/192 kHz | Time – 35:50 minutes | 1,61 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: PonoMusic | © Verve Music

Nina Simone is accompanied on this classic 1967 release by a large orchestra, arranged and led by Hal Mooney. Neither strictly jazz nor soul, the material here is eclectic as Simone interprets these covers in her inimitable style. The album also includes two original songs, the sparse and intimate Come Ye featuring Simone accompanied by nothing but percussion and the centerpiece track, Take Me To The Water. (more…)