What Are You Listening To?

[latorius]

NINA SIMONE "blue lady-my baby just cares for me,volume 1" cd,2002.

this is the first disc of a two disc set,this is studio versions,the other disc is live material.
never really sure where to put Nina as she sort of flits between jazz/blues/soul and pop material, but the majority on here are blues and jazz, so this is where it goes on this occasion.
for some reason this cd has never really been one that i like, not sure why but i prefer Etta James and Billie Holliday for jazz,blues singers of that era and Nina just doesnt cut for me like i know she should.
seven likeable ones here but also seven that i dont like giving a rating score of 1.5,sadly the Shaggy one i posted earlier pips this one,but i dont like that one either.
tried posting this one earlier but i pressed a wrong key somewhere and deleted the whole post, so i cant be bothered posting all links to this one, so several that i do like are posted below including my favourite track "mood indigo". as you probably know i am not a big fan of instrumental pieces of work overall, and there are several on here,none of which i can honestly say i like

I DO NOT LIKE THIS ALBUM

the links are for the seven tracks i do like here:

mood indigo
Nina Simone Mood Indigo - YouTube audio
my baby just cares for me
NINA SIMONE - My baby just cares for me - YouTube live
he's got the whole world in his hands
nina simone-he´s got the whole world - YouTube audio
he needs me
nina simone-he needs me - YouTube audio
love me or leave me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEQpipS_qfc audio
for all we know
Nina Simone-For all we know - YouTube audio
plain gold ring
Plain Gold Ring - Nina Simone - YouTube audio

other songs on the album include:

dont smoke in bed
african mailman
i loves you porgy
good bail
central park blues
you'll never walk alone
little girl blue
3s=0
2s=7
1s=7

rating: 1.5

I love Nina with a passion, she was the one artist that made the blues accessible to me as a white twelve year old, in a declining british industrial city in the late 50's. I saw her on an old Black and White TV, she had a 30 minute show (how I would like to get a copy of that) she was the first performer that made me realise there was more to life than the top twenty. She essentially played what was to be reeased as Nina at Newport, she was spellbinding, but agressive with incredible piano chops (I was studying piano at this point), but a beaudiful warm voice that seemed to envelop you. If you listen to the Animals, you can hear her influence, many of their repertoire were straight lifts from one or other of her albums. Alan Price, made a career of being the best Nina hommage.

The big problem with Nina's recorded work, is that she appeared on a bewildering series of labels in the 50's, 60's and even today. She has some stella studio work and some stella live work, but it is scattered across some 40+ studio and 20+ live albums. She is one of many artists who would benefit from a proper retrospective, the problem is that the rights to her work are held by a multiplicity of companies, and agreement is unlikely, so every small record company who has some claim to some of her work puts out a Best of or Nina's Greatest hits.

So we are left to delve amongst the output and unearth the pearls(they are there). May I suggest "Forbiden Fruit/Nina at Newport which was released together in 96. On Forbidden Fruit is a track "Just say I love him", some 6 minutes of pleading raw emotion, backed by Al Shackmans astounding guitar playing delicate fills and harmonics over and arround Nina's vocals. It is something that I have heard done once more with Judy Collins "The first boy I loved" backed by Stephen Stills from the "Who knows where the time goes". Then listen to her version of "Trouble in Mind" from the Newport album, it displays a female John Lee Hooker, very different but on the same emotional territory.

I read an interview with Nina in the 80's in which she said that she was not happy with any of her albums, but proud of individual tracks. So please explore her recorded works there are some true nuggets as I am finding