In Concert – NINA SIMONE****

I Loves You Porgy/Plain Gold Ring/Pirate Jenny/Old Jim Crow/Don’t Smoke In Bed/Go Limp/Mississippi Goddam

Jazz vocalist Nina Simone's first LP on the Philips label was this live performance recorded at Carnegie Hall, New York in March and April 1964 that features several civil rights songs. (US:102)

"In Concert is a rare treat because it captures Nina in full force, playfully chiding her audience as she sings some of her most socially active songs like Mississippi Goddam and Pirate Jenny."

"This is probably the most personal album that Simone issued during her stay on Philips in the mid-'60s. Old Jim Crow, Pirate Jenny and especially Mississippi Goddam were some of the most forthright musical reflections of the civil rights movement to be found at the time."

"This live album is pure, unadulterated Simone captured live. There is an intimacy and sense of occasion on this album that is missing from some of Simone's other records, and her performances are commanding and her presence palpable. The angry, deeply-felt protest anthem Mississippi Goddam, which features glimpses of Simone's biting humour. She introduces the song as 'a show tune, but the show's not been written for it yet'."

"These seven songs are all utterly superb, marking out In Concert as one of the highlights in Nina Simone's recorded canon. It is mostly a stark, spare work with the spotlight shining on Simone's voice and piano, as well as the occasional and always effective and sympathetic backing of her intuitive musicians. Her subject matter is often strong and political. This is the sound of Nina Simone at the peak of her powers, hitting her artistic stride."

"Simone was a superb story teller, a fine pianist and just happened to have one of those voices often imitated but never duplicated. Her voice had a shimmering, frolicking vibrancy that comes from living the emotions of her music. Her folk-jazz style was not only unique and provocative, it was the music that reflected the times of the civil rights era in America."

"If you like to be stimulated by thought and emotions, then Nina Simone is for you.".