The transformation that took place across the four and half minutes of ‘Mississippi Goddam’ maps that of Simone’s 40-album strong discography. The silence in the auditorium is deafening. “I bet you thought I was kiddin’, didn’t you?” she resumes. By the time she returns to the microphone to address the audience again, the mood had changed. What they get instead is a woman transformed by the relentless horrors and humiliations of the African American experience. The audience laughs, all set for an irreverent romp. Beginning with the jaunt of a show tune, Simone quips with the audience: “The name of this tune is ‘Mississippi Goddam’… And I mean every word of it”. The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama by the KKK which had left four black girls dead was barely six months old, but it took Simone just an hour to pen ‘Mississippi Goddam’. But rather than polite themes from show tunes and restive ballads, Simone’s ’64 performance bristled with a new energy. In March 1964 she took to the stage at New York’s Carnegie Hall in front of an audience of largely white, affluent jazz enthusiasts expecting an evening similar that of a recording made in the Hall the previous year. Recording over 40 albums, from show tunes to Civil Rights anthems, her’s was a message that was indistinguishable from the music.Īnd it’s on that uncomfortable juncture between show tunes and Civil Rights that Simone’s career hinged. It does not store any personal data.A troubled icon whose defiance and singular voice has influenced a generation, there has never been an artist quite like Nina Simone. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies.
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BEST NINA SIMONE BOX SET SERIES
This reissues series marks the first time that Broadway-Blues-Ballads and Let It All Out have been made available on vinyl since their original release. The vinyl remasters for these long-out-of-print titles were cut at Abbey Road from the analog master tapes and are all in stereo. These albums include many of Simone’s best loved cuts including ‘I Put A Spell On You’ and ‘Feeling Good’ but also ‘Wild Is The Wind’, a song that David Bowie, inspired by Simone’s style, would later cover. All albums comes pressed on 180 gram vinyl and are housed in a limited edition box set. The records include: Nina Simone in Concert (1964), Broadway-Blues-Ballads (1964), I Put a Spell on You (1965), Pastel Blues (1966), Let It All Out (1966), Wild is The Wind (1966) and High Priestess of Soul (1967). Released earlier this year as The Philips Years box set, seven albums released by Simone during her tenure on the label from 1964-1967 will be available individually again on 30 September.