Nina Simone: The Montreux Years

Description

Nina Simone’s story from the late 60s to the 90s can be told through her legendary Montreux performances. Taking to the Montreux stage for the very first time on June 16, 1968, for the festival’s second edition, Nina Simone built a lasting relationship with the Montreux Jazz Festival and its founder and director Claude Nobs, whose unique rapport, trust and electricity are palpable in the recordings. Nina Simone’s radical and multifaceted story is laid bare on ‘Nina Simone: The Montreux Years’. From Nina’s glorious and emotionally charged 1968 performance to her fiery and unpredictable 1976 concert, one of the festival’s most remarkable performances ever, the collection includes recordings from her five legendary Montreux concerts – 1968, 1976, 1981, 1987 and 1990. Featuring rare and previously unreleased material from Claude Nobs’ extensive collection of recordings, Nina Simone devotees around the world will rejoice upon hearing the mighty ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free’, the poignant and fearless ‘Four Women’ and the magnificent rendition of ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’. A spine-tingling version of Janis Ian’s ‘Stars’, which Nina Simone performed for the very first time at her 1976 Montreux concert, sits alongside her bold and electrifying re-interpretation of Bob Marley’s ‘No Women No Cry’ ballad from 1990. The collection closes with the encore from Nina Simone’s final Montreux Jazz Festival concert and one of Simone’s most loved and best-known recordings, the exuberant ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’, highlighting the deep, multi-dimensional facets of her life and music.