Jazz / Vocal; Standards; Vocal Jazz
Recorded: Mar 21, 1964-Aug 1966
Nina Simone - Vocal, Piano
Hal Mooney - Arranger, Producer, Orchestra
Rudy Stevenson - Guitar, Flute
Lisle Atkinson - Bass
Bobby Hamilton - Drums
Al Shackman - Harmonica, Guitar
Horace Ott - Arranger, Conductor
Simone's music, like her emotions, defies facile categorization. "Though I include jazz in what I do, I am not a jazz pianist at all," she told a New York Times interviewer in 1983.
In her music here, Simone depicts the self as it strives for definition and connection with others. One must turn to recordings other than these to learn about her ethnic pride, political intractability, and salty sexuality or to get a few rare glimpses of her impish humor. But, as Crawford and Sanborn know, "the real art is how you play a ballad"-- and that art is captured here. Just as her career began with a ballad, her most recent recording, her first album for a major American label in two decades, is an all-ballad collection featuring lush string orchestrations and containing three compositions by, of all people, Rod McKuen. Nina Simone's music continues to be unpredictable, enigmatic, and ceaselessly provocative.
--Joel E. Seigel |
