Items12The creator’s order
  1. 1Little Girl Blue (2014)Little Girl Blue (2014)Released Jan 1, 2014Simone plays the melody of “Good King Wenceslas” against the title song. Listen to how the piano keeps returning to the carol while her singing follows a different shape. A Rodgers and Hart song becomes a conversation between two melodies.0
  2. 2Nina Simone at Town HallNina Simone at Town HallStart with “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair.” The piano establishes a quiet pattern, and Simone lets the syllables take their own time over it. “Cotton-Eyed Joe” is another folk song on the album that rewards hearing how slowly she lets a story emerge.0
  3. 3Nina Simone Sings EllingtonNina Simone Sings EllingtonPut “Solitude” next to “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).” The first gives each line room to settle. The second makes the shape of the rhythm part of what she sings about. Simone arranged the album herself, and the pairing lets you hear how differently she approaches two songs…0
  4. 4Nina Simone in ConcertNina Simone in ConcertOn “Pirate Jenny,” from The Threepenny Opera, Simone keeps the words close and controlled as the character’s story gets more menacing. The performance makes you listen to how she delivers each line, even when the accompaniment stays spare. Her own “Mississippi Goddam” uses the bounce of a show tune…0
  5. 5I Put a Spell on You (1965)I Put a Spell on You (1965)Released Jan 1, 1965Start with the title track. Simone puts Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s song into a ballad setting and lets the tension rise inside a phrase. Then try “Ne Me Quitte Pas,” where her phrasing in French gives Jacques Brel’s plea a more fragile sound.0
  6. 6Pastel Blues (1965)Pastel Blues (1965)Released Jan 1, 1965On “Sinnerman,” a traditional spiritual stretches into more than ten minutes. Follow the piano pattern and listen for the handclaps when the texture thins. “Strange Fruit” is worth hearing alongside it for how much weight Simone can put on a line at a much slower pace.0
  7. 7Wild Is the Wind (2009)Wild Is the Wind (2009)Released Jan 1, 2009Try the title track with Johnny Mathis’s recording of the movie song in mind. Simone gives the melody room to rise and then leaves a little air where you expect it to keep going. Stay for “Four Women,” her own song, to hear how much a change in vocal emphasis can do for a character.0
  8. 8Nina Simone Sings the Blues (1967)Nina Simone Sings the Blues (1967)Released Jan 1, 1967On Lil Green’s “In the Dark,” Simone works with a small band and takes time over the words. Listen for Buddy Lucas’s harmonica as a voice answering hers. “My Man’s Gone Now,” from Porgy and Bess, brings the album’s same attention to timing into a theatrical lament.0
  9. 9’Nuff Said!’Nuff Said!Start with “Ain’t Got No, I Got Life.” Simone joins two songs from Hair and makes the turn from deprivation to affirmation the center of the arrangement. The album also includes her Westbury performance of Gene Taylor’s “Why? (The King of Love Is Dead),” recorded three days after Martin Luther King…0
  10. 10Here Comes the Sun (1971)Here Comes the Sun (1971)Released Jan 1, 1971The George Harrison title song gets a full arrangement and a vocal that leaves its own space inside it. For a stronger change from a familiar version, try “My Way.” The percussion picks up under Simone, and the strings build around a performance that sounds more exhilarated than resigned.0