Nina Simone

Sound DNA

• Jazz
• Soul Jazz

• warm
• intimate
• smoky

About

Plucking standout material from Nina Simone’s Philips albums of 1964-67, this 1969 LP paints a portrait of one of America’s most searingly original and unclassifiable talents. Simone had an effortless fluency in jazz and blues, show tunes, and modern pop/rock, a classically inflected yet indelibly soulful piano style, and an emotionally wrenching and dynamically varied voice that Hal Mooney’s arrangements and production captured especially well. Oddly, there’s nothing here from <i>High Priestess of Soul</i>, but Simone’s six other Philips releases are well represented. The theatrical sing-speak of “Pirate Jenny,” the radical protest of “Mississippi Goddam,” the extended jam breakdown of “Sinnerman,” the chilling narrative crescendo of “Four Women”: There’s a singularly expressive quality in these immortal performances.

via Apple Music

Tracklist

Credits