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

Nina Simone Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone (), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blu ...

. It is her first album for the record label

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

, composed of three live recordings made at Carnegie Hall,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, 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. Allmusic page on ''Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall''/ref> It is a live album recorded at Simone's first solo appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York Cit ...

'' 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' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

oriented music and she incorporated civil rights messaging into 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 (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

''.

Background

* Simone 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 re ...

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

Pirate Jenny "Pirate Jenny" (German: "") is a well-known song from ''The Threepenny Opera'' by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. The English lyrics are by Marc Blitzstein. It is probably the second most famous song in the opera, after " Mack the Knife". ...

" was from ''

The Threepenny Opera ''The Threepenny Opera'' ( ) is a " 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 Villon, with mu ...

'' by Kurt Weill and

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

. 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 often compared wi ...

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 state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

. * " Go Limp" was a humorous folk song about a girl who is warned by her mother not to join the NAACP because it would cost her her virginity. Halfway through the song Simone forgot the lyrics and invented some. 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". The song was released on her album '' Nina Simone in Concert'' in 1964, which wa ...

" 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" (

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

, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward) – 2:18 # "Plain Gold Ring" ( Earl Burroughs) – 5:30 # "

" ( Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, Marc Blitzstein) – 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 Lisle Arthur Atkinson (sometimes "Lysle") (born September 16, 1940, New York, NY; died March 25, 2019, New York, NY) was an American jazz double-bassist. Career Atkinson played violin from the age of four and switched to stand-up bass at 12 years ...

– bass * Bobby Hamilton – drums

Production

Hal Mooney Hal Mooney, born Harold 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 Brook ...

– record producer * Nat Shapiro – liner notes * Mort Shuman – 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