Great Music Monday: Nina Simone
Nina Simone
Nina Simone is someone whose music I have heard my whole life, but it's only been in the last few years I was able to truly hear and appreciate her for the gifted artist she is.
My first introductions to Nina were through old records in my family's house, records of her doing jazz standards, all of which I generally preferred other versions of.
A few years ago, I heard her doing a beautiful and greatly sorrowful version of I Shall Be Released, a song I could listen to a hundred times (particularly when done by The Band). The intimacy in her voice, the sadness, the slowness of the song haunted me. When she sings, she takes her time, and listening to her you know she feels, deeply, every note that comes out of her. She uses music and silence together to create a song, and the result, for me, is always a strong emotional pull into the music.
She recreates any song that she sings, giving it new dimensions of meaning and heart.
Below are two videos;
The first is of her 1984 performance Live at Ronnie Scott's. The song is If You Knew. It's deeply, deeply affecting and vulnerable, and I'm amazed at her willingness to live inside such wrenching emotion, even just for a song, and then to do it in front of an audience, so real, so stripped. Just amazing. Amazing.
The second is a recording of her covering Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles. It's probably my favorite version of that song. She brings a quietness, an intimacy and reassurance that makes me believe, really believe that everything is going to be all right when I hear it. Her piano work is light and the overall instrumental affect of the song is beautiful and comforting and hopeful, and it goes to a place beneath the surface in a way the Beatles never did. (Although I like their version as well, it doesn't hold a candle to Simone's work here). I added photographs of her to the audio track to qualify it as a video, lol. Some of them are album covers, others images of her at various stages throughout her career.
Nina died at age 70 in 2003. Her work never will. Enjoy.
If You Knew
Here Comes the Sun
¶ 10:59 PM
Monday, September 04, 2006
Nina Simone
Nina Simone is someone whose music I have heard my whole life, but it's only been in the last few years I was able to truly hear and appreciate her for the gifted artist she is.
My first introductions to Nina were through old records in my family's house, records of her doing jazz standards, all of which I generally preferred other versions of.
A few years ago, I heard her doing a beautiful and greatly sorrowful version of I Shall Be Released, a song I could listen to a hundred times (particularly when done by The Band). The intimacy in her voice, the sadness, the slowness of the song haunted me. When she sings, she takes her time, and listening to her you know she feels, deeply, every note that comes out of her. She uses music and silence together to create a song, and the result, for me, is always a strong emotional pull into the music.
She recreates any song that she sings, giving it new dimensions of meaning and heart.
Below are two videos;
The first is of her 1984 performance Live at Ronnie Scott's. The song is If You Knew. It's deeply, deeply affecting and vulnerable, and I'm amazed at her willingness to live inside such wrenching emotion, even just for a song, and then to do it in front of an audience, so real, so stripped. Just amazing. Amazing.
The second is a recording of her covering Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles. It's probably my favorite version of that song. She brings a quietness, an intimacy and reassurance that makes me believe, really believe that everything is going to be all right when I hear it. Her piano work is light and the overall instrumental affect of the song is beautiful and comforting and hopeful, and it goes to a place beneath the surface in a way the Beatles never did. (Although I like their version as well, it doesn't hold a candle to Simone's work here). I added photographs of her to the audio track to qualify it as a video, lol. Some of them are album covers, others images of her at various stages throughout her career.
Nina died at age 70 in 2003. Her work never will. Enjoy.
If You Knew
Here Comes the Sun
¶ 10:59 PM
