Nina

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known by her stage name as Nina Simone (Tryon, United States, February 21, 1933 Carry-le-Rouet, France, April 21, 2003), American singer, songwriter and pianist of jazz, blues, rhythm and blues and soul. She is known by the nickname "High Priestess of Soul." The influence of Duke Ellington is clear in all of Nina's work, but especially in certain types of compositions brimming with improvisation and spiritual closeness. When she sang, she sometimes made striking transitions between whisper, scream and lament, to try to underline the moods enunciated in her songs. A great fighter for the civil rights of people of African descent, this fight is expressed on many occasions through her songs. Simone left the United States in 1969, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, tired of racial segregation against African Americans.

Nina Simone: The Montreux Years is released as part of a brand new Montreux Jazz Festival and BMG collection series “The Montreux Years”.

She was one of the most extraordinary artists of the twentieth century, an icon of American music. She was the consummate musical storyteller, a griot as she would come to learn, who used her remarkable talent to create a legacy of liberation, empowerment, passion, and love through a magnificent body of works. She earned the moniker ‘High Priestess of Soul’ for she could weave a spell so seductive and hypnotic that the listener lost track of time and space as they became absorbed in the moment. She was who the world would come to know as Nina Simone.

Niña Pastori is one of the more accomplished cantaoras among the generation of young pop-flamenco singers to emerge around the turn of the century. She was born María Rosa García García on January 15, 1978, in San Fernando, a city in the province of Cádiz, Spain, and her mother is a successful flamenco singer, La Pastori. She began her career at a young age, often traveling and performing with her mother hence her performing name, Niña Pastori, a reference to her relationship to her well-known mother. Niña made her recording debut in 1996 with Entre Dos Puertos, which was produced by Paco Ortega and Alejandro Sanz, the latter Spain's best-selling artist ever.

Nina was giving piano recitals after playing at her local church at an early age. Her childhood piano lessons were funded by her mother's employer and a local fund set up by her music teacher, so impressed were they by her talent.

Thanks to a steady stream of reissues and her central role in Questlove's 2021 Summer of Soul documentary, Nina Simone has lately been accumulating some of the overdue praise she was denied in life. This fiercely gifted and intelligent pianist, who out of necessity eventually discovered her distinctive singing voice, was especially productive from 1964 until 1967 when she recorded most of what's on this compilation. That mid-'60s period is also when Simone moved from innocuous pop standards to protest songs, many of which she wrote or rearranged herself. Many of her best-known mid-period tunes are here: "I Put A Spell On You," “Sinnerman," "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," and the triumphant and justly famous 1964 live version of "Mississippi Goddam" from Carnegie Hall. This brief best-of is completed by the addition of her first hit, "My Baby Just Cares for Me" from 1957. What's new here are remixes of seven tunes whose original versions also appear on this reissue. Opener "Feeling Good," gets a ready-for-the-club makeover from DJ Joel Corry while dance duo Sofi Tukker, who've worked with Lady Gaga and Rodrigo y Gabriela, emphasize Simone's piano part on "Sinnerman" before settling into a standard dance beat. UK duo HONNE evade the dance beat sameness with a downbeat mix of "My Baby Just Cares For Me" that changes the melody entirely while leaving the words intact—an imaginative if not entirely successful reimagining—while the remix of "Take Care of Business" by drum and bass duo Rudimental adds a rumbling undercurrent to the original. The single comes from UK electro-pop band Hot Chip who slow "Be My Husband" and add a fat bass part on keyboards, synth flourishes, and looped reverb to Simone's voice, finishing with a shaking of tambourine. Though not quite the hoped-for hit, the efforts required for a remix adds to the body of respect and awe Simone's work righteously inspires.

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."

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.