''Nina Simone in Concert'' is an album by the jazz singer

Nina Simone Nina Simone ( ; born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, pianist, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and po ...

. It is her first album for the record label

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

, composed of three live recordings made at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, in March and April 1964. Simone recorded ''

Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall ''Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall'' is a 1963 album by jazz singer/pianist/songwriter Nina Simone. It is a live album recorded at Simone's first solo appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York City, on April 12, 1963, and was released on Colpix Recor ...

'' in 1963 for

Colpix Colpix Records was the first recording company for Columbia Pictures–Screen Gems. Colpix got its name from combining Columbia (Col) and Pictures (Pix). CBS, which owned Columbia Records, then sued Columbia Pictures for trademark infringement o ...

. This album marked the beginning of Simone's explicitly

Civil Rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

oriented music and she incorporated such messaging in her performances. Included on the album are unambiguous political songs such as "Mississippi Goddamn", released as a single at the time. However, songs such as "Old Jim Crow", "Go Limp", and "Pirate Jenny" contributed to the political and civil rights messaging in a more covert or metaphorical way. The album was rated as the 94th best album of the 1960s by ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

''.

Background

* Simone first recorded "

I Loves You, Porgy "I Loves You, Porgy" is a duet from the 1935 opera ''Porgy and Bess'' with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It was performed in the opera's premiere in 1935 and on Broadway the same year by Anne Brown and Todd Duncan. They ...

", "Plain Gold Ring", and " Don't Smoke in Bed" on her debut album '' Little Girl Blue'' (1958). * "

Pirate Jenny "Pirate Jenny" (German: "") is a song from ''The Threepenny Opera'' by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. The English lyrics are by Marc Blitzstein. It is one of the best known songs in the opera, along with "Mack the Knife". Content and c ...

" was from ''

The Threepenny Opera ''The Threepenny Opera'' ( ) is a 1928 German "play with music" by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, '' The Beggar's Opera'', and four ballads by François V ...

'' by

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (; ; March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for hi ...

and

Bertold Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a ...

. Simone used the story within the song as a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

for the civil rights movement at that time. Simone rarely performed the song, though the theatrical piece became one of her signature tunes. * "Old Jim Crow" was a protest song against

Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were U.S. state, state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, "Jim Crow (character), Ji ...

. * " Go Limp" was a humorous

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

about a girl who is warned by her mother not to join the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

because it would cost her her virginity. Halfway through the song Simone forgot the lyrics and improvised the rest of the words. At the end she received a standing ovation. * "

Mississippi Goddam "Mississippi Goddam" is a song written and performed by American singer and pianist Nina Simone, who later announced the anthem to be her "first civil rights song". Composed in less than an hour, the song emerged in a “rush of fury, hatred, a ...

" is a protest song written by Simone in 1963 immediately after the Alabama Church Bombing that killed four young girls.full lyrics of "Mississippi Goddam" at boscarol.com
/ref> A minute into the performance, Simone addresses the audience, saying "This is a show tune, but the show hasn't been written for it yet."

Track listing

# "

I Loves You Porgy "I Loves You, Porgy" is a duet from the 1935 opera ''Porgy and Bess'' with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It was performed in the opera's premiere in 1935 and on Broadway the same year by Anne Brown and Todd Duncan. They rec ...

" (

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular music, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swan ...

Ira Gershwin Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the ...

DuBose Heyward Edwin DuBose Heyward (August 31, 1885 – June 16, 1940) was an American author best known for his 1925 novel '' Porgy''. He and his wife Dorothy, a playwright, adapted it as a 1927 play of the same name. The couple worked with composer Georg ...

) – 2:18 # "Plain Gold Ring" ( Earl Burroughs) – 5:30 # "

" (

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

Marc Blitzstein Marcus Samuel Blitzstein (March 2, 1905January 22, 1964), was an American composer, lyricist, and Libretto, librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-Trade union, union musical ''The Cradle Will Rock'', directed by Orson Welles, ...

) – 6:42 # "Old Jim Crow" (

, Jackie Alper, Ron Vander Groef) – 2:10 # " Don't Smoke in Bed" (

Willard Robison Willard Robison (September 18, 1894 – June 24, 1968) was an American vocalist, pianist, and composer of popular songs, born in Shelbina, Missouri. His songs reflect a rural, melancholy theme steeped in Americana and their warm style has ...

) – 5:30 # " Go Limp" (Alex Comfort, Simone) – 6:55 # "

" (Simone) – 4:45

Personnel

* Nina Simone – piano, vocals, arranger * Rudy Stevenson – guitar * Lisle Atkinson – bass * Bobby Hamilton – drums

Production

Hal Mooney Harold "Hal" Mooney (February 4, 1911 – March 23, 1995) was an American composer and arranger. Early life and career Hal Mooney was born in Brooklyn, New York. As a young man, Mooney was a professional pianist. He attended Brooklyn and St. Jo ...

– record producer *

Nat Shapiro Nat Shapiro (September 27, 1922, New York City - December 15, 1983, New York City) was an American jazz writer and record producer. Shapiro worked in the music industry from the late 1940s; he was a promotional director for Mercury Records in 1948 ...

– liner notes *

Mort Shuman Mortimer Shuman (12 November 1938 – 2 November 1991) was an American singer, pianist and songwriter, best known as co-writer of many 1960s rock and roll hits, including " Viva Las Vegas". He also wrote and sang many songs in French, such as ...

– cover photo

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1964 live albums Nina Simone live albums Albums produced by Hal Mooney Philips Records live albums Albums recorded at Carnegie Hall