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Nina Simone | Essential albums and listening guide
Explore Nina Simone through I Put a Spell on You. Discover what to listen for and follow related styles to your next record.
Nina Simone
Meet the artist
A singer and pianist whose classical training met gospel, blues and jazz in a highly personal musical language. Her work was also deeply connected with the civil rights movement. A low, powerful voice and a directing piano form one expressive body.
The length of words and placement of silence can turn intimacy into a forceful address. Classical keyboard movement coexists with gospel and blues inflection. Hearing her beyond a single genre label reveals a musician engaging emotion and society through song. Familiar material acquires a different urgency through vocal weight and repeated accompaniment.
Where to start listening
Notice the piano patterns behind the words. Comparing the two records reveals strength and delicacy within the same voice.
1965I Put a Spell on You
Nina Simone
Nina Simone gives popular songs highly personal interpretations. The title performance became one of the recordings most closely associated with her expressive voice.
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1966Wild Is the Wind
Nina Simone
An album drawn from Nina Simone's Philips sessions, including Four Women. Changes in vocal tone and intensity bring out sharply differing emotional worlds.
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Years follow the Atlas catalogue. Recording dates, original release dates and digital reissue dates may differ.