Nina Simone

Nina Simone

Truly one of of the greatest African-American female vocalists of the 20th century Nina Simone (1933-2003) holds a special position of honor for the fearless role she played as an uncompromising ambas­sador of cultural pride at the height of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements from the late 1950s to the 1970s.

Under­pinning her status as one of the outspoken voices of that tumultuous period in history was Nina Simone’s fascinating and wide-ranging musical taste. Her palette ranged from the 1920s blues and jazz of Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, to the standard songbook of Irving Berlin and the Gershwins, from traditional American balladry and the poetry of Langston Hughes, to the folk and folk rock of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, Richie Havens, Sandy Denny, Jimmy Webb (and many others).

Her song choices further spanned the repertoire of the Beatles, the Byrds, the Bee Gees, and Hair, to Olatunji and the exciting new strains of Afro-pop and World Music before the genre even had a name – and much more.

All these musical roots and branches of Nina Simone’s life are explored in depth on TO BE FREE: THE NINA SIMONE STORY, a deluxe new four-disc (three CDs + DVD) box set that is the most comprehensive and wide-ranging collection of Nina Simone’s music ever compiled.

Containing 51 audio tracks – eight of them previously unreleased – covering her recording years from 1957 to 1993 for the Bethlehem, Colpix, Philips, RCA (for whom she cut nine LPs that are considered the pinnacle of her output), CTI, and Elektra record labels, plus another nine performances on the 23-minute documentary DVD – the box set will be available on October 27th through SONY BMG.

It was onstage that Simone‘s special magic shined – in fact, it was a live performance demo that led to her first record deal at age 24, with Syd Nathan’s jazz label Bethlehem. Even her 1957 debut LP, a studio date with bassist Jimmy Bond and drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath, was given the live-sounding title Jazz As Played In An Exclusive Side Street Club (though it was also known as Little Girl Blue). Three standards from that album, Duke Ellington’s “Mood Indigo,” “I Loves You, Porgy,” and “My Baby Just Cares For Me,” provide the opening trifecta of TO BE FREE.

24 live performances comprise nearly half of TO BE FREE’s 51 tracks, includ­ing a couple that were studio tracks with overdubbed applause, an all-too common practice back in the day: 1959’s “Wild Is the Wind,” and a ’70s cover of Tina Turner’s “Funkier Than A Mosquito’s Tweeter.”

TO BE FREE is the ultimate Nine Simone release. Aside form the 3 discs & dvd, it comes complete with previously unseen photography from Simone‘s family archives, photos from the personal collection of Nina Simone historian Sylvia Hampton as well as meticulously researched track-by-track annotations written by David Nathan.