Nina Simone Rca

Nina Simone was one of the most gifted vocalists of her generation, and also one of the most eclectic. Simone was a singer, pianist, and songwriter who bent genres to her will rather than allowing herself to be confined by their boundaries; her work swung back and forth between jazz, blues, soul, classical, R&B, pop, gospel, and world music, with passion, emotional honesty, and a strong grasp of technique as the constants of her musical career.

2008 two CD set of rare tracks recorded during her tenure with RCA Records 1967-73. Nina Simone is 'telling it like it is' with these rarities and unreleased recordings. This package contains two previously unreleased recordings, many exceptionally rare versions plus the full unedited version of 'Why? (The King of Love is Dead)'. Tell It Like It Is was produced in conjunction with the Dr. Nina Simone fan club 25 tracks. BMG.

Well one listen to this remastered 2 CD collection will give any fan or future convert an overview of a versatile treasure who could sing the most tender and elegant of songs and immediately display her anger and frustration, especially when it came to issues surrounding the Civil Rights Movement. The common denominator that I found in hearing all these treasures was a certain elegance, soulfulness, and pride that left do doubt about her feelings regarding any song she was singing. On the other hand, she never resorted to the histrionics of other singers and both her pain and joy were tempered and best appreciated by listening very carefully to the way she uses silence as much as her voice to interpret any given song.

As a Nina lover, I liked this CD. It makes a good effort at bringing together a varied combination of tunes to give an overview of her musical versatility and possibly a great way to introduce her work to someone who may not know much about it (and believe it or not, there are quite a few people out there!). The choice of songs is interesting because there's a bit of everything… love, despair, hope, anger…
I disagree with other reviews that question the choice of recordings because of her voice. I think you can appreciate the maturity of her voice in some of the songs and of course, she was not going to sound like in the 60s forever, but I think that until her last performance she made songs her own and the strength of her character and performance came across every time.

Dean Rudland compiles a selection of 70s Funk for Back Beats. Nina Simone, Jimmy Castor, Shuggie Otis, Sly & The Family Stone and many more feature. Amazon Review by Donald E. Gilliland: If you can get past the stupid album title and the tacky cover photo, you will find the music on this compilation to be very good, over 65 minutes of fine funky soul tunes from 1968 to 1974. The closest thing to a hit on this collection is perhaps "Sing A Simple Song" by Sly & the Family Stone, but even without a bunch of hits the material on here is very high in quality, which one would expect from a volume in this dependable "Backbeats" series of collection. Even amongst the recognizable names such as Nina Simone, Esther Phillips, M.F.S.B., Shuggie Otis, and Al Kooper we are treated to some very tasty funk-infused material. I also love "Watts Breakaway" by Johnny Otis, "It's Just Begun" by Jimmy Castor (which sounds like it could be an early Earth, Wind & Fire track!),"It's Alright" by the legendary Bobby Rush, and "Afro Strut" by the Nite-Liters. Even more obscure artists such as Shay Holiday, Casey Jones, Jesse Gresham, and Kim Melvin turn out some cool songs. And I can't forget the drum work-out by Bernard Purdie on "Soul Drums". Feel the beat indeed! I have enjoyed almost all of the volumes in the "Breakbeats" series, and this is one of the better ones. Too bad about that horrible cover and the album title! But ignore all that and just listen to the music; there's plenty of truly great songs on here, ones that will surely please fans of early 1970s soul and funk.