NINA SIMONE — Feeling Good: The Very Best of Nina Simone (review)

NINA SIMONE — Feeling Good: The Very Best of Nina Simone album cover

Boxset / Compilation · 1994 · Vocal Jazz

4/5 · 2012-01-15
dreadpirateroberts

As I have but one Simone release I can't state with any real authority whether this is the best place to begin with Nina Simone, nor whether it is one of the better collections, though I suspect it may be. Most likely, her debut is a great place to begin too, but if you want to sample her output with a compilation and explore from there, then 'Feeling Good' seems quite useful for that.

Drawing fairly heavily from her debut 'Little Girl Blue' and then mostly her 1960s output, 'Feeling Good' includes a handful of live songs woven between studio versions. Drawing heavily from covers, there are not a lot of Simone-penned pieces, but her great skill comes not just from her performance, but her interpretive ability. She often takes a song and makes it her own - delivering perhaps definitive versions of songs that were later covered by other artists or drawn from musicals. For instance, 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' is tortured, impassioned, fantastic. 'Feeling Good' is another stand out performance, and while I prefer Hawkins' version of 'I Put a Spell On You' Simone makes it lush. Other times she is simply beautiful like on 'I Loves you, Porgy' and while I miss the mournful trumpet on 'Strange Fruit' it's in good hands here.

Known for her powerfully deep voice and sombre deliveries, the vocals are the main focus here of course, though the occasional short solo from piano or trumpet does crop up on some songs. Instrumentally, more than a few of the pieces are trio-based with piano, bass and drums featuring, while others are scored liberally with strings or feature horn sections. Using these backings, upbeat tracks such as 'Work Song', 'I'm Going Back Home' and Ellington's 'Mood Indigo' or 'Feeling Good' are sequenced nicely to contrast with her ballads and laments.

For anyone unfamiliar with her work in general, Nina Simone covers show tunes, does rhythm and blues, gospel, jazz and soul - and on 'Feeling Good' it's all on display. But even with those riches, perhaps the most startling, and for me amazing piece here, is the ten minute live version of 'Sinnerman.' A traditional song that Simone both explores and claims, her band tears through this song about a man running on judgement day (Well I run to the rock/please hide me I run to the rock/please hide me) incorporating piano, guitar, drums, handclaps, and call-and-response-vocals, it's a masterful piece with it's rolling piano, hissing pulse set by the drums and Simone's forceful delivery.

One of the only omissions that I can think of with my admittedly limited knowledge of her albums would be 'Plain Gold Ring' from her debut, one of the most emotive of her performances hands down - and delivered so simply yet lacking nothing. The other is her version of 'House of the Rising Sun' and though there are doubtless others that may have been included, across the twenty songs here you seem to get a good picture of her output. And the version of 'Sinnerman' alone is worth it.

Four stars. If you already like Nina Simone, then you won't need this, but if you're looking for a starting point this is worth a look.