Description
Label Review.
Nina Simone Sings The Blues - Silk & Soul - ‘Nuff Said - Nina Simone & Piano - To Love Somebody - Black Gold - Here Comes The Sun - Emergency Ward - It Is Finished.
Our Overview.
After seven albums for Philips Records, “the High Priestess Of Soul” Nina Simone signed a new deal with RCA Records which saw her through to 1974 - probably her most challenging and controversial period. Her first album for the label: ‘Nina Simone Sings The Blues’ contains “Backlash Blues” one of her civil rights tunes. Later albums for RCA contained material by contemporary pop writers like The Bee Gees, Jimmy Webb, Randy Newman, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Sandy Denny, George Harrison, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, & Chip Taylor.
Most of these were pieced together by the label blending studio and live recordings in an attempt to make coherent collections. They did a pretty good job as the discs in this set attest. On her final album for RCA, ‘It Is Finished’ (1974) she explored African percussion, sitars and the strange, chilling visions of the maverick Bahamian musician Exuma. By this time she had given up on her music career and was living in Liberia. She would return to the scene in 1978 on CTI Records.