Nina Simone - Nina Simone and Piano!

Love side of love/hate

Very personal and raw music here. "I Get Along Without You Very Well" is essential. There's a lot of quirky stuff but I see this album as a gutsy exertion of freedom and honesty. Nina Simone isn't someone I often recommend to soul fans, jazz fans, funk fans, or folk fans. She's really in a category by herself and in most cases, you'll have to come to Nina on Nina's terms. I believe her loneliness on this album. October 26, 2007

A Masterpiece

some of the songs on this album are so emotionally intense it is almost disturbing(in a good way). In Love In Vain, I'll Look Around and some of the other tracks are interpreted so well that I would put them among Nina's very best. Whoever said she sounds disinterested on this album better get their ears and/or emotional perception checked. At times Nina's voice is edgy. Was it ever not? She doesn't sound beautiful the way Ella Fitzgerald does, but that is NOT Nina's sound and as much as I love Ella thank God she doesn't. Life isn't always beautiful and Nina's experienced, imperfect voice reflects that side of human existence. This album is a masterpiece and gives an intimate and poigniant insight into human experiences, rivaled only by the Great Billie Holiday. for those who like their music undiluted, I highly recomend this gem. March 28, 2007

Emperors New Clothes!

I am a big Jazz and Blues fan and Nina is up there with the greats but who was she kidding with this dreadful album. Her singing is way off key, she sounds drunk and uninterested.

Saying that she wanted to be remembered for this album was Ninas little joke!, which no one on this page seems to get!

Buy 'Nuff Said' instead its fantastic! March 31, 2005

A milestone in the art of black american singing

One phrase by Richard Pryor could sum up everything: "white people had Judy Garland;we had Nina.God bless ya,baby!".
Nina Simone (1933-2003),born Eunice Kathleen Waymon,indeed was a beautiful human beeing.Because of her political and social thoughts; because of her voice,one of the most moving of the 20th century,with Billie,Dinah and Lil Green;and because of her amazing piano playing.Yes,this Lady belongs to the small club of the best piano players,with Hines,Duke,Monk,Bud,MaryLou,Fats and Tatum.
Now,about the record;I gave it five stars,even if I think that this item doesn't reach the unsurpassable level of the Colpix recordings (Nina at Newport,Nina at Carnegie Hall,Nina with strings,Nina at the Village Gate,Forbidden fruit,Nina sings Ellington,the amazing Nina Simone).The Colpix years gave us some of the most precious treasures in the history of jazz.
Here,you won't find the ferocity,the urgence you heard in "work song","forbidden fruit","trouble in mind","li'l Liza Jane";here is the intimate side of Nina Simone,alone with her piano,recorded 1968.And even if the jacket is one of the most horrible of all times (the cover "art" is a supreme moment in the registry of ugliness;doing a worse thing seems almost impossible),the music is absolutely outstanding.There are no very well known standards here;those who treasure Billie Holiday's recordings will recognize the haunting "I'll get around without you very well" and "I'll look around";there is the beautiful "the man with the horn";"the desperate ones",a french song by Belgian-born singer Jacques Brel (Nina also sung "Ne me quitte pas",another song by Brel);there is the old spiritual,"Nobody's fault but mine";did you ever heard Blind Willie Johnson's version of it ??? There are many other wonderful songs;there are Nina's extraordinary,very african voice ,and her amazing piano playing.Please,don't miss it!!! June 29, 2003

I have a song

This was my first Nina Simone record. ( Sorry, but I'm over 40) I'd never heard the Bernstein song, "Who Am I", but I will never forget it. It's a riveting performance. Its a song that can make you ask yourself, "Who am I", at a deadly serious level. The Nina bares herself in this song and seems to be asking you at a face to face level to do the same. Who are you?

A good artist is always able to expose/reveal the self in their work and sometimes make you question things or at the very least ponder them. Nina achieves that in this song. Does she play it the way its written? I don't know, don't have the sheet music. I just know she plays it the way its felt.

Give in to Nina Simone. April 28, 2003

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